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?
11 areas in Iowa. Switching state opens its best-scoring one.
mostly clear at first light
Legal light
6:23 AM
At dawn
60°F
Wind
14 mph S
Pressure
Steady
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.
Coverage is the Mississippi flyway for now — the Atlantic, Central and Pacific 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 61°F at Union Slough NWR, Iowa with 6 mph wind from the S. A 11°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 Union Slough NWR, Iowa. Best looks like Sun — 11°f drop · 59% precip.
14 mph S at dawn
60°F at dawn · 82/59°
7°F drop · 17 mph W at dawn
64°F at dawn · 75/58°
11°F drop · 59% precip
52°F at dawn
Union Slough NWR, Iowa
5 AM
60°
9S
6 AM
60°
9S
7 AM
59°
10S
8 AM
62°
12S
9 AM
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.
Union Slough NWR, Iowa · as of Sep 11, 3:00 AM CT
11°F
Cold Front
Next-day high drop (front)
6 mph
Wind
From the S
Best morning
21 mph ESE at dawn · 95% precip
56°F at dawn · 74/56°
8°F drop
55°F at dawn · 66/55°
Slight Chance Rain Showers
51°F at dawn · 68/51°
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.
66°
14S
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.
—
Water Levels
Nearest-gauge mapping pending
Open
Freeze & push
No freeze in 72h · no push from the north (14 areas open)
Steady
Pressure
29.92 inHg, steady over 3h
Where to read Iowa's waterfowl counts straight from the agency.
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.
Straight from Iowa's agency — we link rather than repeat them.
Season dates, zones and limits change every year and differ by zone. Confirm with the agency before you hunt — their page is the only version that counts.