South Dakota snow goose update
Getting more back into a groove with the hunting stuff…here’s the latest from Sand Lake refuge south of Ellendale and north of Aberdeen.
Due to extreme winter weather conditions and flooding in the Sand Lake area, this will be the last update until further notice. Please respect our request and don’t call the Sand Lake Office for reports until further notice as staff is very busy dealing with water and weather related issues.
On Sunday March 29th there were approximately 750,000 snow geese on Sand Lake Refuge and a million in the area. These geese were not observed coming back to the Refuge Sunday night and on Monday there were less than 20,000 geese observed in the immediate Sand Lake area.
During the weekend huntable numbers of geese were observed in the Scatterwood Lakes area of northeast Faulk County and in the Groton and Aberdeen areas. Due to the impending blizzard, the numbers and locations of these geese may change rapidly.
Temperatures are predicted to be no warmer than the high 30’s for the rest of the week, which means the 8-10 inches of snow that Sand Lake is predicted to get will not melt quickly. Areas to the east and west of Sand Lake may receive up to 16 inches of snow by Tuesday night. There is more precipitation possible for the end of the week.
Be advised that many roads in northeast South Dakota are under water, with some culverts washed out.
