At the Upper Souris National Wildlife Refuge, 

 Frank R. Martin saw large numbers of mallards and 

 scaups passing down the Souris River valley throughout 

 the day of November 1. He estimated that, at a point 

 east of Foxholm, 1,000 ducks per hour, in flocks vary- 

 ing from 25 to 100 birds each, were passing through a 

 half-mile gap in the valley. East of the valley, water- 

 fowl were present in even greater numbers, but they 

 were more widely dispersed. The flocks flew at heights 

 of 75 to 100 yards or lower — so low that some of the 

 ducks were shot down by hunters 



Homer L. Bradley, at the Long Lake National Wild- 

 life Refuge near Moffit, reported that throughout the 

 daylight hours of November 1 the air was full of ducks 

 in any direction that one might look. The mass move- 

 ment was similar to one which he had observed on 

 November 13, 1954, but the 1955 flight was larger. All 

 flocks, most of which were composed of mallards, were 

 flying south-southeast; few, if any, flocks stopped in 

 the area on their way through. 



South Dakota.— In South Dakota, the peak of the 

 flight occurred on November 1. On that day, Ray Murdy 

 was aviating up the Missouri River from Fort Thompson 

 to the North Dakota line. Murdy reported the following: 

 "Throughout the whole flight we saw indications of a 

 large-scale, daytime mallard migration. As we were fly- 

 ing north we were continually meeting flocks of mal- 

 lards following the river south. This is the only time 

 we have seen such a movement on the river during the 

 three years we have made the survey. Also, for the first 

 time we saw numerous, scattered flocks of mallards 

 resting on open water where we have never seen mal- 

 lards before. We had the impression that these were 

 new arrivals that were unfamiliar with the river and had 

 landed to rest before they had reached one of the nu- 

 merous concentration areas.' 



Upon returning at night to his home at Webster in 

 northeast South Dakota, Murdy heard from local hunters 

 that there had been a very heavy movement of ducks 

 through that area all day (November 1). The ducks 

 passed through without stopping, and, on November 2, 

 Murdy found that even the waterfowl which had been in 

 the Waubay Hills area the preceding day had departed 

 during the night. 



Driving through eastern South Dakota on November 

 1, James G. Sieh did not notice migrating waterfowl un- 

 til about 2 P.M., when he observed several flocks fly- 

 ing southward above the prairie hills near Clear Lake, 

 about 10 miles west of the Minnesota line. 



Nebraska.— In the Bassett area of north-central 

 Nebraska, Harvey W. Miller observed only a minor duck 

 flight on November 1 and 2. To the east, on the Missouri 

 River, excellent shooting occurred on November 1, 2, 3, 

 and 4. Miller reported that neither the game managers in 



the Lincoln area, in the east, nor those in the Alliance 

 area, in the west, recorded large movements of water- 

 fowl at that time, but that the game manager for the 

 North Platte area in central Nebraska recorded large 

 flights on the nights of November 1 and 2. 



The large flight of waterfowl into the North Platte 

 area was observed also by Harland M. Morgan. He re- 

 ported that, during the night of November 1, -40,000 

 ducks and 500 Canada gpese (Branla canadensis) ar- 

 rived at the .Sutherland Reservoir and that more arrived 

 during the ensuing day, November 2. At the North 

 Platte Reservoir, the number of ducks increased from 

 2,500 to 15,000. The migration was made up largely of 

 mallards, but with considerable numbers of lesser 

 scaups and smaller numbers of all other ducks indigen- 

 ous to the area. 



Minnesota. "At the Mud Lake National Wildlife 

 Refuge in northwest Minnesota, J. C. Carlsen observed 

 flock after flock of ducks passing through on November 

 1. The stream of ducks, most of which were mallards 

 interspersed with scattered flocks of divers, consisted 

 of groups of about 25 to 200 birds. Between October 28 

 and November 2, Carlsen estimated that over 100,000 

 ducks, passed over the refuge. There was very little 

 evidence of migration on November 2. 



On November 1, Forrest B. Lee observed great 

 numbers of ducks while he was making an aerial census 

 of waterfowl on east and west transects through the 

 west-central part of the state; the southernmost transect 

 passed a few miles north of Fergus Falls. Lee reported 

 that although he observed some flocks of migrating 

 ducks during the morning, the flight did not reach 

 spectacular proportions until afternoon. From 1:00 to 

 3:00 P.M., flocks of waterfowl, almost all mallards, 

 were tallied from the airplane at the rate of 75 flocks 

 per hour. 



Lee observed that most of the flocks were flying to 

 the southeast but that some were migrating due south. 

 Many flocks were flying as low as 100-150 feet above 

 the ground, and, although most were higher, 700-800 

 feet appeared to be the highest altitude for those visi- 

 ble. None of the passing waterfowl showed the slight- 

 est interest in stopping at any of the innumerable lakes 

 over which they flew. 



Norman J. Ordal reported that fisheries personnel 

 of the Minnesota Department of Conservation counted 

 139 flocks while driving 18 miles from Perhatn to 

 Detroit Lakes on .November 1. The flight was first 

 noticed in that area at about 11:00 A.M. 



In northeastern Minnesota, biologist Milton Stenlund 

 noted no indication of a major flight on November 1 or 

 2 in the Superior National Forest area. Manifestly, the 

 principal flight of waterfowl was farther to the west 

 at that time. 



