Any reports?
I'm hunting a cut hay field with a few geese moving and some doves in Racine County just south of Bong rec area.

Southern Oneida County;

No geese moving, but I've seen a couple guys heading out.

I've been at the Eagle River Gun Show, and I did have a guy come in and buy all my BB on Friday, lol.

A hunting buddy lives on a nearby lake that has been having a "goose problem" this summer. The geese were causing havoc at another nearby lake, and those residents chased them off with noise makers and coyote decoys. Geese are shitting all over everyone's lawns, piers, etc. So my buddy & I set up some decoys (8 floaters and 10 shells on the waters edge) and a portable blind on his shoreline, both Thursday & Friday mornings. But the geese were a no show. We did see a flock heading to a different nearby lake, one which we can't hunt on. Then heard some shots, but they never returned our way. And on both mornings, we had numerous flocks of mallards land, or swim, right into our 18 goose decoys. We didn't see any teal.

fwiw... hunting on a fully developed lake can be tricky with the legalities if you don't own property there. We researched it thoroughly. It's legal for a property owner under almost all circumstances to hunt waterfowl on their privately owned shoreline. But those who are hunting "on the lands of another" (like I was) must be at least 100 yards from a "building devoted to human occupancy", or have permission from the owner or tenant of any such building. That means you need a lot of shoreline with permission to hunt on it. My buddy's brother (who is also a hunting buddy of mine) owns the only "offending" building within 100 yards, his summer cabin on his lake lot right next door. Between the two, they own about 700' of shoreline, so we set up a blind right at the property line, about in the center of both lots. We're well beyond the 100 yards of the properties on either side of the brothers (neither of which have ever complained). Not that it matters, but the buddy I'm hunting with is the president of that lake's property owners association. He gets any complaints people may have about "issues" on the lake sent to him. The only complaints he's gotten lately are about all the goose shit. So...he's taking action. Because it's a holiday weekend, and the lake is "busy" with boaters and fishermen, we're taking the weekend off... but we'll be back out there tuesday.

Had some Sandhills greeting me this morning, and the funny thing is they walked to me when putting out decoys.
1 yesterday and 1 today, flying really early.
Lots of doves around and the Mojos are doing great!

Western WI has become devoid of fowl.

Last year’s drought made it the worst waterfowl season ever.  

This year we are paying another heavy price since no babies returned to nest here once they became adults.

Next year will be just as bad.

I’m so glad I finally bought a hard charging u her hunter lab and sent him away to extremely expensive training, only to have no birds to shoot.

I am very sad.

Opening morning was sucked with fog and very few birds moving,  and the drought is bad here also.
There's a little ox bow up river that is usually 2-3 feet deep and covered in smart weed.
Its just a trickle now since the river dropped 22 inches from Saturday to today.
I've watched well over a hundred wood ducks drop in years past, this weekend 8 total.

Sucks about the new dog situation and no birds.

We've had dry conditions here also. But in this area, it helps, not hinders the hunting. For the past 6-7 years, it's been very wet. Too wet. There's bogs everywhere in this area, and ponds formed in them, making 100K mini-refuges for the ducks. They are for the most part unhuntable...unless you've got an Everglades type air-boat to get to them. All that widely scattered water had the birds widely scattered too. On the bigger lakes, water levels were so high, the feed for the dabblers was too deep underwater. divers had to go deeper too. So they left the bigger lakes where most of the public hunting areas are, to feed and lounge all day in the shallow bog ponds.

Now with the dry conditions this year, those 100,000 potholes everywhere are all dried up. Water levels on bigger lakes are down to normal or below, providing more feeding areas, bringing the ducks back. I was out yesterday and this morning. My buddy and I were the only 2 hunters on a 3,000 acre flowage that is down 10' from where it was at this time 2 years ago, and there are more Mallards feeding on it now than we've seen over the past 7-8 years. Because all the little bog ponds and beaver ponds have dried up, they have nowhere else to feed and/or roost.

My wife was from the Eagle River area, she may know you RFB.

I am glad someone is getting some duck action.

I might take Friday and Monday off to try to find ducks.

I wasn't born & raised here, but I have lived here 31 years.

We saw ducks, but there was no "action". We watched them feed on a mud flat exposed by the falling water level, that's the "X" where they want to be. None flew our way. None flew much at all, in the sunny, warm, calm weather we had those 2 days. We tried setting up to hunt on it, but it's boot sucking muck, and every step is a struggle. I didn't have my boat blind with, just our portable shore blind, and we declined on the idea of sitting all day in ankle to calf deep mud. Going back tomorrow, after this cold front, with the boat blind. We like the new rules that say your boat only has to be within 3' of shore (including islands) and vegetation in the water is not required. Exposed lake bottom, out in the middle, is a new island. We'll just drive my Tracker Grizzly right up to it and sit in the boat out of the mud.

if anyone wants a hunting buddy, i'm happy to buy shells, beverages, or meals
just don't really have a place to go
ideally within an hour or two of madison

Went back today to a different spot on the mud flat and the muck wasn't as bad. But we were late and kinda half-assed our setup, not expecting much. Boy were we wrong.

The good: we saw more ducks today than any single day in the past 5 years. Mallards, widgeon, and divers (by the way they rafted out in the middle of the open water, we assume redheads...hundreds of them tightly bunched). It wasn't as cold as we thought it might be, even though it was snowing sideways like a mini blizzard the whole boat ride out there (partially why we were late...visibility was about 40'). I brought along a propane heater on an 11lb tank, but we never lit it up. Too busy watching flocks of ducks everywhere... that keeps you warm.

The bad: We only bagged one widgeon. My partner got it (2 shots), I never fired my gun all day. Because we half-assed our set-up they were flaring just out of range.

Our portable blind is 4' high, 4' deep, 10' wide. It is a 1" PVC frame that we assemble on site (takes us 2 minutes flat) and then we have windproof nylon camo material  (came with my Macs Prairie Wings boat blind) that we hang on the PVC frame. I have 2 pieces, each is 4' x 15' and reversible with 2 different camo patterns (Mossy oak Break-up on one side, a cat-tail marshy type on the other). It has a bungy-rope sewn in the entire length of both top & bottom on the long sides. Over that we hang woven palm leaf mats, we didn't bother with them today, nor did we use our camo netting roof... a big mistake. Several times flocks of mallards or widgeons flew over us just out of range but were able to look staright down and see us without our roof, and they flared off. Without the grass mats, the blind is "boxy" looking out on a mud flat with zero vegetation. But that's where the birds want to be, so that's where we go. About 8:45, all activity ceased. We packed up and left at 9:45. My hunting partner and his brothers have to pull 2 pontoons and 2 deck boats from the lake today, and store them for winter, so he needed to get back home by 11.