Kansas Coverage
South Central and the Arkansas Duck Migration Forecast
Cheney and El Dorado either side of Wichita, the Arkansas River running southeast, and the Slate Creek marshes down toward the Oklahoma line.
See today’s live scoreAll of KS
Season dates: Kansas duck season 2026-27, dates and migration timing
Where South Central and the Arkansas is
South Central and the Arkansas is drawn from 12 counties in Kansas: Barber, Butler, Comanche, Cowley, Harper, Harvey, Kingman, Marion, McPherson, Saline, Sedgwick and Sumner. 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 South Central and the Arkansas 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 South Central and the Arkansas
3 upstream stations feed this region's freeze line, nearest first: Fairbury, NE, about 170 miles north, Alma, NE, about 200 miles northwest and Grand Island, NE, about 235 miles north. When those stations ice over, the score here starts climbing before anything changes in the local sky.
Radar over South Central and the Arkansas
Each morning DuckCast reads the night’s NEXRAD data from KICT, the National Weather Service radar at Wichita, about 5 miles west of the region’s weather point. That is close enough for the radar to sample the air over the region itself. 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 South Central and the Arkansas 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 65 miles west
- Cheyenne Bottoms, about 90 miles northwest
- Southeast Timber, about 105 miles east
- East Central Lakes, about 125 miles northeast
- Northeast Reservoirs and the Kaw, about 125 miles northeast
- North Central Reservoirs, about 145 miles north
- Southwest Playas, about 165 miles west
- Northwest High Plains, about 210 miles northwest
Across the state line
- North Central, Oklahoma, about 75 miles south
Season dates and regulations change. Always verify with Kansas Wildlife and Parks. DuckCast forecasts conditions, not legal seasons.