Specklebellies over Alabama

Today I had texts when I woke up from folks in Clarke County who had heard specks before daylight. By 8:00 from Evergreen and Demopolis and they had heard from folks in Montgomery and Selma.
Mid Afternoon I heard one group then saw another group flying in central Baldwin then another flew over about an hour ago. In 2012 this happened the first week of November and the first 10 days of specks in Arkansas and Mississippi were a slam dunk.
Anybody else hear them or see them today?
On a side note...a small cow pond which can hold a flock of teal here and there had about 75 and that is pretty much SRO in that little pond! LOL And that was the first one's in it all year

Friday I watched a couple hundred Sandhill cranes fly over the house in Marshall county.

I saw a group last year flying south during bow season.

Saw a group near Statesville in Autauga Co yesterday afternoon, then another group came through Dallas Co. this morning

I saw a group of probably 100 flying out in west mobile almost in Mississippi yesterday morning.

My brother texted me and said he saw some yesterday morning then I saw a group of about 100 fly over my house yesterday just after lunch.

Specks or Snows? Maybe both.

I have heard Snows coming over the house in Birmingham many nights around this time. Always close to Halloween like clockwork.

These are specks. This morning at daybreak had some coming north out of the gulf over little lagoon. Also the first 2 bald eagle of the year.

Awesome. I love to speck hunt. Hunted over in the flyway for years and at some point it dawned on me that I was wasting all kinds of hunting opportunities by not targeting Specks when the ducks were slow or in the afternoons.

We have a place in Clarke cnty. I had never heard a goose over there until 3-4 yrs ago. Now I hear specs and snows every year towards the end of October. They where pilling in last nite here in SW La.

By band return data over last 25 years...ducks in MS flyway and wintering ground are moving west. Geese, mainly specks and cacklers, but to a lesser extent snows are moving east.

Are they just coming into those big swamps between the rivers? Not much AG land down there so I am surprised and do they stick around or head further South I guess FL? I have never seen specks along the coast down there but I'm not down there that much. May not have the numbers, etc.

I'm sitting out on the farm right Rob. There is so many it's driving me crazy. They are coming from the Klondike/ Gueydan direction and headed towards welsh. Aggravating bastages is so noisy I can't concentrate on the hogs.

Choot em

They aren't coming to Bama purposefully. They just have overshot their destinations while riding the jet stream ahead of the strong cold front. It happens from time to time. Just seems to be happening more often in paST YEARS THAN IT USED TO.
They leave immediately with almost no stragglers left behind

Yep, I wondered if any Specs actually put down. Same with the Snows/blues, they ride down and fly back the next day it seems.

I believe this about the ducks during the 80's. I could look out over Pickwick late in the evening and the numbers of ducks in the air was stammering (thousands in flight at time). I've been in swamps where thousands came in to roost late in the evenings of the last week of the season.

Tenn Tom took away the west end of Colberts' birds.
As you mention there has been a shift in the MS flyway, I feel a good it of it is from hunting pressure too!

Heard some come over last weekend in Lamar county

I honestly would think that many here would find that hard to believe about Pickwick. But it is the truth. Even on the river at Decatur as late as the early to mid 1990's there would be so many ducks on the river you could look out there with binoculars and see them rolling over like blackbirds in a field. Thousands. Looked like flies on a giant cow patty out in the stumps in front of Swan Creek.

They say they winter the same amount of ducks on Wheeler but I suppose if they winter as many as it will hold when they count... we'll that's as many as it would hold. Obvious to me those counts did not include the river system or they'd have to 1/2 or even less than what they use to winter. No way there are any many birds around up there now. I lived it. Not close.

My father has said the same about affecting the ducks that migrated here to North Alabama.

Todays duck hunters really did miss out, I recall the old timers in the 80's when I started saying the good days have past, didn't see the ducks they used to.

I can't even imagine that.

Don't get me wrong, we have some good years from time to time but nothing like it was.

A bad day was hunting past 8 am!!!!!

same with turkeys too

i agree. When they first started flooding the Tenn tom the hunting in Gainesville lake for several years was as good as any hunts I ever experienced in La.

The lack of ducks on Pickwick has been caused by multiple factors. I believe first and foremost it's because of commercialization of the sport. There are lots and lots of acres of food that is left and flooded north of us that short stop our ducks. Weather is another factor. I don't care how cold it gets, as long as a duck has open water and food, he ain't leaving. It takes ice and snow to cover the food before they will move. A duck also has a memory. He will travel the same routes and go back to the places where he knows the food and safety were available. Also for us on pickwick, there are not as many potholes and water available as there used to be. I used to kill a lot of mallards on the river that were holding on these potholes and small ponds where they were feeding and then coming back to the river to roost. My experience now is that when we have a big push of ducks, they may only stay a day or two and then move on. The only thing that will change our hunting here is for there to be a good snow pack all the way to southern Illinois. But I am am gonna stay after'em. I grew up huggin stumps in Decatur, hunting out of a blind in Swan Creek and hunting the river around 7 mile. It is disappointing.

I saw a bunch of snow geese or speckel bellys yesterday morning I'm green co . I kept thinking I was hearing a little dog yaping but the flew over fighting a 30 mph north wind heading toward the sipsy river.

Specks were flying today!

Yes. Heard a pile of them this pm

This probly the strongest front so far, and as deep as it is going to push I would expect flocks of snows and specks to be lost all over Alabama in the morning.

I saw em too. This was the second flock i saw today.

I saw 2-300 Specks fly over our farm on Sand Mtn in Jackson County. Headed south ! The only time I've ever seen them before was in Illinois when we were deer hunting .This was Wed morning.

So what your telling me is that i need to go in late to work in the morning.