South Dakota Coverage
Prairie Coteau Duck Migration Forecast
Waubay, Bitter Lake, Enemy Swim and the Sisseton hills. The deepest pothole country in the state and the first ground to hold birds down out of North Dakota.
See today’s live scoreAll of SD
Season dates: South Dakota duck season 2026-27, dates and migration timing
Where Prairie Coteau is
Prairie Coteau is drawn from 4 counties in South Dakota: Day, Grant, Marshall and Roberts. 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 Prairie Coteau peaks
DuckCast’s season model puts the mallard peak here around early 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 Prairie Coteau
3 upstream stations feed this region's freeze line, nearest first: Fargo, ND, about 110 miles north, Grand Forks, ND, about 180 miles north and Devils Lake, ND, about 210 miles north. When those stations ice over, the score here starts climbing before anything changes in the local sky.
Radar over Prairie Coteau
Each morning DuckCast reads the night’s NEXRAD data from KABR, the National Weather Service radar at Aberdeen, about 55 miles west of the region’s weather point. That puts the radar just outside the region, near enough to see birds lifting off and passing close by. 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 Prairie Coteau 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 South Dakota
Nearest first. Distances run between the regions’ weather points.
- Glacial Lakes, about 30 miles south
- Sand Lake and the Upper James, about 55 miles west
- Mid James Valley, about 75 miles southwest
- Big Sioux Corridor, about 105 miles south
- Oahe and the Missouri, about 150 miles west
- Lewis and Clark, about 165 miles south
- Grand River Country, about 245 miles west
- Cheyenne River and the Hills, about 290 miles west
Across the state line
- Southeast North Dakota, North Dakota, about 75 miles north
Season dates and regulations change. Always verify with SD Game, Fish and Parks. DuckCast forecasts conditions, not legal seasons.