Kansas Coverage
Cheyenne Bottoms Duck Migration Forecast
Forty-one thousand acres of shallow marsh in the Smoky Hills, plus the Kanopolis and Wilson country east of it. The best pintail water in Kansas, and the first to lock.
See today’s live scoreAll of KS
Season dates: Kansas duck season 2026-27, dates and migration timing
Where Cheyenne Bottoms is
Cheyenne Bottoms is drawn from 5 counties in Kansas: Barton, Ellsworth, Rice, Rush and Russell. Those are the counties its shape on the DuckCast map is built from, so a hunter in any of them reads this region’s score.
When Cheyenne Bottoms peaks
DuckCast’s season model puts the pintail peak here around late October. This follows the statewide pintail curve. That is a modelled typical curve, not a prediction for any single year. The actual push depends on cold fronts and freeze-up upstream, which is what the daily score tracks. Always confirm season dates with the state wildlife agency, linked below.
What DuckCast watches upstream of Cheyenne Bottoms
3 upstream stations feed this region's freeze line, nearest first: Alma, NE, about 120 miles north, Grand Island, NE, about 170 miles north and Broken Bow, NE, about 210 miles north. When those stations ice over, the score here starts climbing before anything changes in the local sky.
Radar over Cheyenne Bottoms
Each morning DuckCast reads the night’s NEXRAD data from KICT, the National Weather Service radar at Wichita, about 85 miles southeast of the region’s weather point. That is well outside the region, so treat the radar reading as area context rather than a measurement of this ground. Radar sees every bird in the air, not only ducks, so it confirms or questions the score rather than moving it.
Locations stay generalized
Hunter reports for Cheyenne Bottoms are always shown at the region level. DuckCast never collects or displays exact coordinates, so filing a report here never burns a spot.
Also covered in Kansas
Nearest first. Distances run between the regions’ weather points.
- Quivira and the Rattlesnake, about 40 miles south
- North Central Reservoirs, about 80 miles north
- South Central and the Arkansas, about 90 miles southeast
- Southwest Playas, about 110 miles southwest
- Northwest High Plains, about 120 miles northwest
- Northeast Reservoirs and the Kaw, about 140 miles northeast
- East Central Lakes, about 175 miles east
- Southeast Timber, about 185 miles east
Season dates and regulations change. Always verify with Kansas Wildlife and Parks. DuckCast forecasts conditions, not legal seasons.