Blackland Prairie Duck Migration Forecast

Where Blackland Prairie is

Blackland Prairie is drawn from 24 counties in Texas: Clay, Collin, Cooke, Dallas, Delta, Denton, Ellis, Erath, Fannin, Grayson, Hood, Hopkins, Hunt, Jack, Johnson, Kaufman, Lamar, Montague, Parker, Rains, Rockwall, Somervell, Tarrant and Wise. 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 Blackland Prairie peaks

DuckCast’s season model puts the pintail peak here around mid January. The timing follows the statewide curve; what differs here is how many birds the model expects, below. 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.

Which birds the model expects in Blackland Prairie

In DuckCast’s season model, the species that can score highest in Blackland Prairie are green-winged teal, blue-winged teal and gadwall. Against the state as a whole, it expects fewer mallards in Blackland Prairie.

Those weights come from harvest records, survey counts and the kind of water, not from a count taken here each season. They cap how high each species’ score can climb; the weather still has to bring the birds.

What DuckCast watches upstream of Blackland Prairie

3 upstream stations feed this region's freeze line, nearest first: Ardmore, OK, about 70 miles north, Lawton, OK, about 125 miles northwest and McAlester, OK, about 140 miles northeast. When those stations ice over, the score here starts climbing before anything changes in the local sky.

Radar over Blackland Prairie

Each morning DuckCast reads the night’s NEXRAD data from KFWS, the National Weather Service radar at Fort Worth, about 45 miles south 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 Blackland Prairie are always shown at the region level. DuckCast never collects or displays exact coordinates, so filing a report here never burns a spot.