Conditions dashboard
Migration Center
Live weather and water conditions, with an auto-generated forecast for the area you pick.
Conditions dashboard
Live weather and water conditions, with an auto-generated forecast for the area you pick.
Conditions dashboard
Live weather and water conditions, with an auto-generated forecast for the area you pick.
Where do you want to hunt?
10 areas in North Dakota. Switching state opens its best-scoring one.
patchy fog at first light
Legal light
7:52 AM
At dawn
34°F
Wind
10 mph SE
Best-scoring areas right now, ranked by conditions and the latest survey counts.
Ranked by Hunt Score adjusted for confidence — an area backed by real survey counts outranks one scored on weather alone at the same number.
What's pushing birds south across the Mississippi flyway — freeze, fronts and north wind — with the measured counts on top. Click the map to open it full size.
North Dakota is in the Central flyway. The heatmap covers the Mississippiflyway for now, so it isn't showing your area yet — the conditions, outlook and shooting light above are for North Dakota. The other three flyways are coming.
Change since each area’s previous survey — arrow up filling, arrow down emptying, and the number is birds per day.
24 of 96 areas have only one stored survey, so they have no change to show — they appear grey.
No recent survey count for this area — the score below rests on weather and water only.
An engineering estimate that blends live weather, water, and the latest official survey count — not a validated prediction. Missing inputs lower confidence, not the number.
It's 34°F at Audubon NWR, North Dakota with 10 mph wind from the SE. A 5°F drop in daytime highs is forecast over the next day or two — a cooling front that can nudge fresh birds south.
Auto-generated from live NWS/USGS data. No recent survey count for this area, so this describes conditions, not confirmed birds.
Each morning scored at first light for Audubon NWR, North Dakota. Best looks like Fri — 5°f drop.
10 mph SE at dawn
34°F at dawn · 43/34°
Mostly Cloudy
35°F at dawn · 55/35°
Mostly Clear
31°F at dawn · 51/30°
Audubon NWR, North Dakota
8 AM
34°
10SE
9 AM
35°
10SE
NWS hourly forecast for the legal-light window, on the area's local clock. Wind arrows point the way the wind is blowing; the letters are the direction it comes from.
What the dashboard reads
A sharp drop in the daytime highs, a north wind pushing behind it, and water holding on the marsh — that's the mix that fills the sky. The drivers below are those exact signals, read live.
Audubon NWR, North Dakota · as of Oct 27, 8:00 AM CT
5°F
Cold Front
Next-day high drop (front)
10 mph
Wind
From the SE
5°F drop
30°F at dawn · 46/29°
Best morning
Chance Rain Showers
36°F at dawn · 53/36°
Chance Rain Showers
39°F at dawn · 53/39°
Scored over the dawn window (5–10am local) from the NWS hourly forecast, using the same model as the Hunt Score. Water and survey counts don't have a per-day forecast, so they are held level across the strip — the day-to-day movement here is weather.
Full moon
98% lit — birds may feed overnight and sit tight at dawn
Federal shooting hours are a half hour before sunrise to sunset; some states narrow this. Confirm with the state agency.
—
Water Levels
Nearest-gauge mapping pending
Freezing soon
Freeze & push
Freezes in ~44h · no upstream areas scored yet
—
Pressure
No nearby station reporting a barometer
Waterfowl survey reporting for North Dakota.
Counts from these reports are stored and used to anchor the Hunt Score and the migration heatmap. Figures belong to the publishing agency — follow the link for the current numbers.