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.
partly sunny at first light
Legal light
6:48 AM
At dawn
56°F
Wind
16 mph N
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.
22 of 92 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 56°F at Audubon NWR, North Dakota with 15 mph wind from the N. A 10°F drop in daytime highs is forecast over the next day or two — a cooling front that can nudge fresh birds south. The northerly wind is favorable for pushing birds down the flyway.
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 Sat — 10°f drop · 13 mph nw at dawn.
16 mph N at dawn
56°F at dawn · 71/54°
10°F drop · 13 mph NW at dawn
48°F at dawn · 61/46°
Best morning
Mostly Cloudy
45°F at dawn
Audubon NWR, North Dakota
7 AM
56°
15N
8 AM
56°
16N
9 AM
59°
16N
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 Sep 11, 7:00 AM CT
10°F
Cold Front
Next-day high drop (front)
15 mph
Wind
From the N
15 mph SE at dawn · 89% precip
49°F at dawn · 63/48°
12 mph W at dawn
43°F at dawn · 67/43°
Partly Cloudy
46°F at dawn · 70/46°
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.
New moon
0% lit — dark nights, better odds of a morning feed
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
Open
Freeze & push
No freeze in 72h · 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.