The waterfowl migration report for western Pennsylvania for the week of Jan. 11 from the Avery Outdoors Pro-Staff:
Pro-Staff member: David Rearick
Date: Jan. 13
Location: Erie
Weather: Cold, almost brutally cold. Everything is locked up tight at this point except for fast-moving bodies of water. Ducks are still around, but not in great numbers and geese are here but holding tight feeding sporadically due to the weather.
Snow cover: 10 inches or more in some spots along with a crust of ice on top.
Water conditions: Frozen except for some faster-moving bodies of water and warm water discharge areas.
Feeding conditions: Not hot. The ice on snow has made finding food difficult. The only saving grace at this point is manure spread on top of snow, allowing the birds to pick waste grain.
Species and numbers: Good, but dropping daily. We need a warm -p to move the birds back to normal areas.
Migrations: None, most birds are either down or past us already.
Season stage: Closed in many portions, with RP and South zone ducks still in full swing.
Hunting report: The erratic weather has made things difficult, especially holding birds to a pattern.
Gossip: Hunt the afternoon and plan to stay a good while. They have been flying at all times during the day, not repeating day to day. It’s tough out there.
Pro-Staff member: Erik Nilsson
Date: Jan. 10
Location: Pittsburgh
Weather: Winter storm, Temp 27 degrees, wind NW 3 mph
Snow cover: Heavy
Water conditions: Mostly frozen
Feeding conditions: Heavy
Species and numbers: Mallards
Migrations: Yes
Season Stage: Late
Hunting report: With a winter storm approaching fast, bringing significant snowfall for our area, we arrived to our spot with heavy snow already starting to fall quickly. We cleared out some of the partially open water, set the dekes and waited for LST.
With the heavy snow it was difficult to see far but soon we could hear faint quacks and chuckles of a flock of mallards; a few quacks on the calls and they were feet down into the decoys. Our morning hunt quickly ended as the rest of the birds followed the same pattern. We finished with a limit of mallards for each of us.
Gossip: Most hunters I talked to did not hunt.