Nebraska Coverage
Niobrara Country Duck Migration Forecast
Ainsworth and the Holt County flats east to the Missouri confluence. River hunting with sandhill lakes behind it.
See today’s live scoreAll of NE
Season dates: Nebraska duck season 2026-27, dates and migration timing
Where Niobrara Country is
Niobrara Country is drawn from 6 counties in Nebraska: Antelope, Boyd, Brown, Holt, Keya Paha and Rock. 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 Niobrara Country peaks
DuckCast’s season model puts the mallard peak here around mid November. This follows the statewide mallard 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 Niobrara Country
3 upstream stations feed this region's freeze line, nearest first: Winner, SD, about 70 miles northwest, Pierre, SD, about 140 miles northwest and Aberdeen, SD, about 200 miles north. When those stations ice over, the score here starts climbing before anything changes in the local sky.
Radar over Niobrara Country
Each morning DuckCast reads the night’s NEXRAD data from KLNX, the National Weather Service radar at North Platte, about 90 miles southwest 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 Niobrara Country 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 Nebraska
Nearest first. Distances run between the regions’ weather points.
- Sandhills Lakes, about 115 miles west
- Central Platte, about 125 miles south
- Missouri River, about 140 miles east
- North Platte and McConaughy, about 155 miles southwest
- Rainwater Basin, about 160 miles southeast
- Republican Valley, about 165 miles south
- Lower Platte and Salt Valley, about 170 miles southeast
- Panhandle, about 230 miles west
Across the state line
- Lewis and Clark, South Dakota, about 80 miles east
Season dates and regulations change. Always verify with Nebraska Game and Parks. DuckCast forecasts conditions, not legal seasons.