ConvergenceThe Central and Mississippi flyway converge in the central mid-west due to the Mississippi River converging with the Ohio and the Missouri Rivers. The ducks following the Mississippi flyway are concentrated in the lower Missouri River basin where the watersheds flatten out into wide sub basins composed of thousands of streams. While at the same time the Mississippi flyway proper along the upper Mississippi River and along the Ohio narrows to minimal standing water structure. Missouri waterfowl hunting is good due to the confluence of the Central and Mississippi Flyways. Unlike the coastal flyways that are clearly bound by the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans and Appalachian or Rocky Mountain chains the two interior flyways share a common boundary assigned by man rather than natural geographically limiting obstacle. The interior flyways also contrast the ocean flyways and that the waterfowl migration movement is motivated by the region's major rivers rather than the more linear north-south coastal and mountain lines. Interior Flyway Migration PatternThese geographic characteristics influence a different migration pattern in the central United States than is experienced on the coastal regions. Within the interior the migration follows the directions of the rivers that transcend the north-south flyway boundaries. The map above shows the major rivers that influence the central United States migration. Highlighted in blue is the Lower Missouri River Basin that concentrates the waterfowl from the Missouri, Ohio and Upper Mississippi Rivers. Amongst these river influenced migration patterns the Missouri is the longest at 2,341 miles from Canada to St. Louis. Missouri RiverThe Missouri River is notable for the six dams and the largest overall reservoir system in the United States. This large amount of standing water structures continues thorough its length to include within the state of Missouri. Not only are there large reservoirs there exist an uncountable number of natural and manmade smaller wetlands, flood plain, marsh and other water based habitats that allow for vast breeding and hold layover populations of ducks during the migration. This map of three national watersheds confluence within the Mississippi Flyway Missouri wetlands shown by the Missouri (blue) Upper Mississippi (olive) and the Ohio (orange) further demonstrates the value of the area highlighted by the blue circle in the map further above. Not only is the Missouri Watershed the largest, as the ducks and geese migrate south they concentrate as the watershed constricts transcending from the Central Flyway to that of the Mississippi Flyway. Knowing this is key to why this area has the good waterfowl hunting that it does within the Mississippi flyway. 6 Basins
Missouri is composed of six river basins with the Lower Missouri River Basin the most extensive in terms of types of water structures and quantity. The basis of the Mid-America Hunting Association's wetlands comes from this basin's extensive network of streams, rivers and marsh. Within the Lower Missouri River Basin three major sub-basins exist. Each of the sub-basins is composed of multiple watersheds. The Missouri Department of Conservation does spot counts of ducks within each of the sub-basins shown above. The matrix below are representative duck counts (geese are not included) giving example of the migration flow over time.
The links below will provide increasingly greater detail about our private wetlands goose and duck hunting under the Mississippi Flyway in Missouri. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Yes, those are pelicans. The Mississippi Flyway attracts a lot of variety and many of our hunters that travel out our way are surprised by the diversity. Many believe the pelican is a saltwater only bird.
