Latest / Ducks Unlimited Podcast / Northeast Migration Update: Black Ducks, Geese & Late-Fall Outlook

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Northeast Migration Update: Black Ducks, Geese & Late-Fall Outlook · Ducks Unlimited Podcast

• 0:00
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• 0:31
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• 0:38
  Mike Brasher: Hey, everybody. Welcome back. I am doctor Mike Brasher. I'm gonna be your host on this episode, and it is another migration and hunting update, and we are welcoming in a first time guest, this time from the Northeastern US, the North Atlantic, if you will. And our guest today is Joe Albanese, another one of our Migration Alert Editors.
• 1:01
  Joe, welcome to the Ducks Unlimited Podcast.
• 1:03
  Joseph Albanese: Thanks very much for having me, Mike. I appreciate it.
• 1:05
  Mike Brasher: Yeah. You and I were talking before we started recording, just doing a little bit of orientation on where you are and how long you've or what you do this time of year, and so I've heard some of that, but now that we're recording and got things going for the listener, tell people where you are, tell people, like, how... What type of hunting do you enjoy, what type of people do you connect with to get this information to provide these updates to our audience?
• 1:32
  Joseph Albanese: Sure. So I grew up on Long Island. So the majority of my hunting took place in the salt marsh and, you know, also out in the Atlantic, did a little bit of gun for sea ducks. But I have... About a little over a year ago, I've moved up to the Finger Lakes, and that's kinda changed my perspective a little bit.
• 1:50
  I'm chasing more of the freshwater ducks. I've been kinda keying in on those little tiny ponds where I'm not gonna see anyone, you know, other hunters, you know, taking advantage of that low pressure and just, you know, having fun mornings. You know, I love wood ducks. I I love black ducks. You know, it'll always be a special place in my heart for them.
• 2:11
  And, you know, I really love just talking to people about warfowl hunting. So I've been doing these migration reports for, I think, since, like, 2018 or something like that. And, you know, I I... My background is in wildlife. My degree is in wildlife management, and I spent the first portion of my career working for various state and federal agencies, including the Fish and Wildlife Service.
• 2:36
  Most of my time was spent with the USDA Department of Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services Division, which was kinda like, you know, wildlife conflict, but not like raccoons and chimneys, like landscape level, like rabies work, bird strike mitigation, trying to keep geese out of jet engines, gulls, you know, that that sort of thing. And so, you know, though though I don't work directly in that field anymore, but that's where I get a lot of my information from is the guys. I went to school with the guys I used to work with. So I lean on those guys a lot to get this information. And and, you know, and obviously the guys that are out in the field all the time.
• 3:20
  Right? Like, I talk to a lot of guides and that, you know, they're out there every day, so they kinda get the pulse on what's going on, you know, and myself too. Like, I I have a day job, but I do manage to get out. You know, I used to hunt maybe seventy days a year. I'm probably closer to 50 now, but I still get out and get after it whenever I can.
• 3:44
  Mike Brasher: So Yeah. That's great. You've already answered what was gonna be my next question, and that was how many days a year do you get out and hunting, so I appreciate that. Appreciate the legwork that you do to try to get the pulse of what's happening with duck migration, duck hunting success. You cover a larger region for Ducks Unlimited in our migration alerts.
• 4:06
  You've got an update coming out, I think, next week, kinda given the time that we're recording this, which incidentally is October 21, like to provide that timestamp. People will hear this here early next week. But I wanted to take this opportunity to get sort of a big picture look at how the season has progressed, what you're hearing, what you've experienced from different... Just from that overall Northeastern US region thus far in the 2627 hunting season. What's been the takeaway so far?
• 4:40
  Joseph Albanese: So, you know, we we don't really get a lot of the prairie birds that they do in in, you know, in Middle America and that, you know, those flyaways. So it doesn't... What's happening there isn't always what's happening here. And so... But we've had a very good hatch on the, you know, on the eastern side of things.
• 4:58
  So we've seen a lot of birds. You know, black ducks are doing real well. We were lucky enough to get into a bunch of black ducks in the in the freshwater. Not as regular as they are, you know, to the salt. There's, like, a good population of resident black ducks up and down the coast, but they tend to push through more in the interior of The States.
• 5:18
  So we're seeing a lot of black ducks. Goose numbers have been phenomenal. I mean, there's just Canada geese everywhere. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised they picked up some on the background here because they've just been moving for the past three or four days almost nonstop. And, you know, part of the...
• 5:34
  That, I think, is last year, a lot of crops got left standing because of drought, and this year, you know, farmers were able to harvest those. So, you know, those birds that might have passed over looking for something to eat, you know, now have a place to go. So so we've been seeing a pretty solid push of geese. Wood duck numbers continue to be, you know, just phenomenal. I I do I do love wood ducks.
• 6:00
  I think they're one of the best eating ducks there are, and I like hiking a half mile into a pond that I'm not gonna see anyone else on. So, you know, it's nice to have those three birds flash down and be back at my desk at 8AM. You know? So bird numbers are well. I don't see a lot of ring necks in my area, but I have heard that it...
• 6:20
  You know, a little further north here on Champlain in those areas that they got a lot of ring necks, and I believe that they did very well this year. So that that kinda makes sense. But, you know, a lot of teal early on, a lot of wood ducks, a bunch of black ducks. Haven't seen the, you know, the so called other stuff yet other than a handful of pintails, but we're still early. Like, that's gonna be, like, December usually, like, right around Christmas time.
• 6:47
  If we can line up a a cold snap with Christmas, that's when we really start to see that... Those types of birds.
• 6:54
  Mike Brasher: Yeah. That... I appreciate that, Joe. The comments that you're making are similar to what we've heard from John Pullman and Jay Anglin in terms of generally favorable reports, and in some cases, glowing reports, depending on where exactly you're talking about. So we always try to be careful and help manage expectations because, you know, people's satisfaction is determined by what they anticipate, what they expect whenever they go into a certain effort, hunting in this case, and then what they actually experience, and if what they experience doesn't meet their expectations, then they're going be dissatisfied.
• 7:35
  So we try not to get too optimistic and try not to be, you know, too generous with what we're describing, but it sounds pretty darn good from a lot of the folks that I've talked about. There are some places, of course, that are across the areas that we've discussed thus far that are struggling a little bit, but overall, early in the season, I think people have to be pretty excited about what we've seen this year. We had reports of good production out of the Prairies, had reports of good production out of the Great Lakes. Now you're saying that it sounds like, and is is looking like, we've got good production out of portions of the Eastern US. If you had to contrast this or compare this year with maybe what you recall from last year, the last couple years, is it noticeably better, or is there just so much variation that you would say, oh, it's good, but can't really tell you if it's like 50% better than last year or anything of that nature?
• 8:37
  How do you think about those things?
• 8:38
  Joseph Albanese: So it's really hard to gauge that because we're not that late in the season yet. Like, at this time... Compared to this time last year, think we're definitely doing much better than we were last year, and I think a a key component of that is habitat. Like, we were very dry last year. We were dry this year too up until a few weeks ago where we got some rains that, like, really flooded some areas, but they were...
• 9:01
  You know, it was unfortunate the damage that those rains did, but they did recharge a number of the wetlands. So there's just more habitat for birds right now than there was last year. And, you know, again, last year was kind of feast or famine depending on where you were. If you were... Happen to be in one of the areas that had water, you know, you would tell people I had a great time, but, you know, if you were outside of that area, like, you, you know, you weren't seeing birds because the the habitat wasn't there.
• 9:28
  So so this year, I think, overall, with more habitat, the birds are little more spread out, so more people are getting opportunities than they did last year. So last year, later in the season was very good, and that comes down to weather, right, as it often does. And, like, we actually got that cold snap. You know? It it used to be you could set a set a, you know, clock by it.
• 9:54
  It would be set... Ended up in the Finger Lakes for that, you know, that last week of December. Right? And then it just got warm of, you know, for a number of years, and all those little creeks didn't freeze up and push the birds onto the bigger the bigger water, but it did last year. So the late season was was excellent in some areas.
• 10:14
  And then, you know, it might have gotten too cold for other areas, like further down in in their... You know, in the wintery area, because what would be a historic wintery area kinda got birds pushed out because they got locked out. You know? Like, the Long Island, I know a lot of those geese pushed out, you know, and the guys didn't have, like, a great late season on geese, but, you know, it was made up for by the variety of ducks they had before it got too cold.
• 10:38
  Mike Brasher: Yeah. Joe, I know a lot of hunters in the South Atlantic and maybe even the Mid Atlantic look to places around where you are and maybe a little bit farther north in anticipation of what the... What later months and later weeks may hold for them as birds move out of your area and down into those those more South Atlantic areas. What has... And a lot of that is gonna be weather dependent.
• 11:00
  Right? So when things get... Like you said, later in the winter, you get those cold weather systems that will move some of those birds longer distances down to the coastal areas, but I do have a question right now about the weather systems that you've seen thus far, and I think you might have had one here recently. I'm kinda curious how much you felt up, you felt it there in New York. I was talking with Jay Anglin, and it was a system that recently came through the Mid Continent into the Great Lakes that brought gale force warning, gale force wind warnings to the Great Lakes region.
• 11:33
  Did you guys pick up that same intense line of... Or or mass of of wind, that weather system? How how much did it affect your temperatures? How much did it affect your hunting success? That would have been about a week ago.
• 11:47
  Is that right?
• 11:48
  Joseph Albanese: Yeah. So we... Yeah. So we definitely did see some of those winds not nearly as intense. Parts of Western New York were under a tornado watch, which is wild to say because, you know, when I was growing up, if you said that there was a tornado in New York, I would have thought you were crazy, but it is happening somewhat regularly now.
• 12:07
  But... So, yes, we did definitely see a push of birds on that. I... I'm wondering what's been pushing these geese down now because we haven't had a a big front, but we're just having kinda seasonal weather, which is which is nice. We are getting those cold cold mornings and maybe just having more habitat for them.
• 12:26
  So we we are seeing... Again, like, it's... The geese have been nonstop in the past, like, three days. It's just... I stick my head outside, and all I hear is is geese honking.
• 12:36
  So I I don't know that we picked up as many birds due to that front just because I don't think it it hit us in the same way, but we did definitely see some birds pick up in the last week or so.
• 12:48
  Mike Brasher: Yeah. Very cool. And you mentioned it's it's cooler there. You got some cold weather. We were commenting here earlier, I was noticing, and you made the remark that you're gonna have to turn the heat on in your outdoor area, in your little shop there where you are, you're outbuilding.
• 13:04
  You're wearing your sweater. You got your hoodie on. So definitely, we're in fall. We've got some chillier weather. I wanna talk here...
• 13:11
  We're gonna take a break, and then when we come back, I wanna ask you about two things. We wanna talk about, like, what the near term, you know, seven, ten, fourteen day forecast looks like for that Northeastern US region, but I also wanna see if you can tell me anything about what you're hearing from the Northeast Coastline, any sea ducks and sea duck hunting, maybe some brant discussion, talking about some of that. So stay with us, folks. We will be right back with Joe Albanese.
• 13:46
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• 14:02
  Mike Brasher: Welcome back, everyone. We are here with our migration alert editor from the Northeastern US, Joe Albanese. Joe, I wanted to talk with you about... Let's go to C Ducks coastal reports first, and then we'll kinda close out by talking about longer term or or, you know, longer term may be a relative term. The long term weather forecast, let's just say that.
• 14:25
  But first of all, what have you heard from coastal regions up there in the Northeastern US?
• 14:29
  Joseph Albanese: So I know a number of people up in Maine, and they are really excited for the season. Last year, they did really well as compared to years past. You know? I I think there was a good number of eiders that had showed up, and it seems to be setting up in the same way. It's still a little early for a lot of those birds to be there in force, but they're starting to see the, know, the early migrants kinda pop in, and it's been in really encouraging numbers.
• 14:52
  You know, you're even starting to see as far down south as Long Island. You know, the guys out tuna fishing, out striper fishing are seeing the first waves of, you know, long tails and scooters kind of popping in. So it looks like it's gonna be a pretty good year for saltbirds. It... You know, I mean, they're down from their long term average, and that's...
• 15:14
  You know? But it... They're doing... It seems like it's gonna be a good season.
• 15:20
  Mike Brasher: Yeah. And are we talking eiders? Are we talking eiders, skaters, long tails? Kinda give people an idea of the different species that we're talking about out there.
• 15:29
  Joseph Albanese: Sure. So... And that's actually... Let's talk about eiders, and that's kind of some interesting stuff that's that's gone on there. And, you know, eiders traditionally kinda wintered from Maine down to, like, Rhode Island, and Rhode Island was, like, a real hotspot for them, and you would see them few and far between on Long Island.
• 15:46
  But something in the last few years kinda shifted, and the guys hunting out of Rhode Island aren't seeing the number of eiders that they once did. Now, like, speculation is is a lack of mollusks. Right? It's a lack of, like, shellfish for them to eat there because, you know, when I was growing up, if you saw one eider off the Coastal Island, it was, you know, call call your friends and tell them. Right?
• 16:08
  And now, you know, guys can go there and, like, regularly take limits, not just off the East End, but, you know, on the South Shore as well. And so the... Our best guess is that it's just... You know, the forage has changed a little bit. So there's still eiders around Rhode Island, you know, and they're getting targeted a little more there than they had in the past.
• 16:29
  Massachusetts changed some of its gun laws to not allow semi autos in the state, and that's kinda prevented a lot of guys from duck hunting in... A lot out of state or from duck hunting in Massachusetts. Now I should say, you know, that you can apply for permits. So, like, don't cancel that trip, guys. If you hadn't heard, you can get a week long permit to go.
• 16:52
  So, you know, go go chase those birds. Don't cancel your trip. But but a lot of that pressure has also slid down in Rhode Island, which might have also kind of pushed those birds a little further south out of their traditional range. So long tails are doing well, and I've always kinda thought they were awesome because the areas you find them, you know, I mean, they'll they'll forage in a 180 foot of water, which is just wild to me. So long tails are on the move, and those are one of the early migrators.
• 17:26
  And so they're showing up in good numbers in all their traditional areas from Maine down to, you know, down to New Jersey coastline. And the SCOTRS. Black SCOTRS were typically the first, and that seems to be holding up this year as well. So... But the scooters are are are doing well.
• 17:46
  Brant, I love Brant. I always will. I don't hunt them much anymore, but they have a special place in in my heart just because they're, you know, this, like, mini seagoose that rides out in, like, some of the worst weather imaginable. And so they're a photoperiod bird, but they have started to move, and they're in kinda good numbers for... You know, compared to years past.
• 18:08
  Anecdotally, guys are seeing a lot of juveniles, which is good because they've had some some rough years. You know, they get beat by the snow geese and kinda out competed for nesting. So... But they're they're showing up in pretty good numbers for the guys that are looking to target them. And, you know, if you...
• 18:25
  Even if you don't wanna go hunt them, I suggest you go spend some time at the Spontoscopes somewhere they are because they're just one of the coolest birds you're ever gonna see.
• 18:32
  Mike Brasher: So, Joe, do you get much? Do you spend much time hunting those birds out on on the coastline hunting sea ducks, or do you mostly, like, for your time, do you mostly stay inland chasing dabblers and and other diving ducks on inland waters?
• 18:47
  Joseph Albanese: So, I mean, so I did... I grew up on Long Island, and so most of my hunting took place inside the salt marsh. Where I grew up, the black duck is king and, like, always was. So that's where I spent a lot of my time hunting was black ducks in the marsh, and it's it's kind of a super unique experience. You know, you might...
• 19:07
  We'll have to wait four hours for the water to drain out and there'll just be just enough water. I call it, like, the the the three inch rule. Like, they wanna be three inches of water. So you get on the flood or get it on the on the on the ebb, but just kinda playing those those water levels. So I I spend a lot of time targeting puddle ducks, and, you know, when it freezes, you get a lot of them.
• 19:30
  But I also I also did target sea ducks because I think they're just super cool. And I had a buddy who lived on the North Fork, and we would layout hunt a lot. And, again, it was kinda just, like, to be part of the show. Right? Like, it was...
• 19:47
  You know, shooting the bird was, like, almost ancillary. Right? It was just to get to have these, like, you know, these these awesome hardcore birds, like, landing in your face. So... But these days, I am in the Finger Lakes, and it is a different style hunting here.
• 20:03
  You know? It's much more agricultural. So you've mallards and black ducks in fields, you know, a lot of Canada geese in fields, and then, you know, we have the the big lakes. But when things kind of freeze up, they'll be, you know, on those bodies of water because it... It's rare that they'll completely freeze.
• 20:20
  Some of them are, you know, six, 800 feet deep, so there's always some pockets of open water. And, actually, last year, just as the season closed up here, you'd go see rafts of, you know, 1,500 redheads, you know, 1,500 broadbill or scap. And so so that... Yeah. That's that's where most of my hunting.
• 20:42
  So it's kinda interesting perspective, and I I love them both for different reasons. Like, I will always enjoy kinda playing the tide. They always have a special place in my heart, but I I just kinda love, you know, these agricultural fields.
• 20:56
  Mike Brasher: Yeah. Well, it is pretty neat that you've got those different hunt... People in the Northeast, let me just say, have those different hunting opportunities, and when you say you're playing the tide, you're playing some tidal amplitude, some tide ranges that are different than the coastal areas that I would be most familiar with down in Louisiana. We're talking maybe six inches, 12 inches. What's the tidal range on Long Island, some of those other areas?
• 21:24
  What are you dealing Two, three feet maybe? What... What's it look like this time of year?
• 21:28
  Joseph Albanese: So on the South Shore, it's not as... It is a... As... The South Shore swing isn't as big as it is on the North Shore, but you're still looking at about six feet.
• 21:38
  Mike Brasher: Oh, six. Okay.
• 21:39
  Joseph Albanese: Yeah. Six feet more when you're on the moon. Some of those bays, you know, the wind plays a big factor. You get a a west wind for a few days. Like, you can just walk across those bays.
• 21:50
  It just keeps the water out. And that's good and bad because getting places is difficult, but it exposes a lot of, like, new area to these ducks, makes it a little easier from the forage. So the North Shore, it's a little different. You know, it's probably about seven to 12 typically up there, but it's like if you think about, like, the volume of water in a cylinder. If you have a narrower cylinder, it's gonna stick up more than it would in a, you know, in a wide bowl, and that's kinda what's going on down there.
• 22:18
  And, again, it it all kinda... Like I said, it's the... Like, for pub ducks, I call it the three inch rule where they wanna be in, like, three inches of water where they can easily access the stuff on the bottom. So you're either looking for the bottom of the tide where they're gonna be able to eat... A lot of times, in my experience, they're eating periwinkles.
• 22:37
  They're literally like marsh snail, like half the size of your thumbnail, and they can get to those, you know, when the water drops out. Or on the other side of that, I like to hunt high tide where it's... Especially on a moon tide that the water will be higher than it was before because it'll flood out areas that they're not typically able to get to, and then it'll float like seed heads up that they haven't been eaten yet. But the difficulty there is trying to hide. You know, where at low tide, you you can kinda disappear into those banks at high tide.
• 23:10
  You know, even in a real low boat, metal box, or something like that, you know, you're you're sticking up above everything. So you really gotta... You know, black ducks are really wary, and they'll pick you apart pretty good. Yeah.
• 23:23
  Mike Brasher: Joe, I wanna talk about what the next seven to ten days holds in terms of weather forecast, what you're seeing. It's October. That means it is a wonderful time of year. You've got some pretty cooperative temperatures, maybe not so cooperative from the standpoint of triggering large movements of birds, you will get some of those periodically, but like I was talking to Jay England the other day, this time of year, the temperatures that you're getting, average temperatures, are probably ideal for just having a really good time outside doing anything, chasing birds, chasing fish, chasing deer. It's a wonderful time of year.
• 24:07
  The leaves are changing color. You've got a lot of opportunities to be outside to pursue different things. For the next seven to fourteen, ten to fourteen days, what is the weather looking like for your area, and do you anticipate any additional, you know, major movements of birds given what you see in that weather forecast?
• 24:29
  Joseph Albanese: So it's, from what I've seen, it is gonna be consistent. Right? We're gonna have, like, a, you know, overnight low hovering right around freezing and then midday highs of about 50. I don't see any big winds on the horizon, but I I think that that's gonna be just enough to kinda just keep these birds trickling down. I think they're gonna move consistently, but not in giant pushes, which is probably good for for hunters so you can kinda get a little more consistent action.
• 24:56
  I don't see anything in the long term here that leads me to believe that we're gonna see one big push, and they're gonna, you know, be be gone. There's still wood ducks around, and I kinda, with this weather, anticipate them sticking around at least for another, you know, week or two. I think the teal are probably gonna disappear if you saw some residual teal in your area. And I think that we're gonna start to see more big ducks filtering in, but I don't think we're gonna see any kind of big push. I think it's gonna be slow and consistent.
• 25:26
  And if you can stay in some good habitat, you're gonna have some good action.
• 25:29
  Mike Brasher: So given those those rather consistent conditions, what's your advice to hunters? I would imagine the... At the top of the list, it's to get out and try it, get out and hunt because you, you know, you can't be successful on the couch, but any particular advice that you would give on, you know, how they could try to be more successful whenever they do get out?
• 25:52
  Joseph Albanese: So when it comes to geese, you know, you're looking for food sources, so find who's cutting right now and just kinda, you know, go knock on some doors and get permission. That's that's gonna be the most... You know, I I had a buddy in in college who said if you wanna get a waterfowl hunter, you know, something for Christmas, get him a gas card. Right? Because that kinda remains
• 26:13
  Mike Brasher: remains true to
• 26:14
  Joseph Albanese: get out there and and see him. So, you know, look for food sources if you're gonna wanna hunt Canada's. And then, you know, again, where we don't have a ton of water here, better than last year, but, like, I would say to, you know, concentrate on those, like, mid sized wetlands that are gonna pull birds in and have enough food for them still if you're... And if you're looking for, you know, wood ducks or something like that, like, go go to those hardwoods. It's...
• 26:39
  It seems to be a good mash year. There's, like, acorns floating everywhere. You know? I almost feel like I'm hunting baited ponds with some of these. I'll shoot my birds and be standing in the middle, and they're they're landing around me.
• 26:49
  Right? So so, yeah, so I just think that going out there burning gas, if you're looking for geese, they're they're cutting. If you could find a cut cornfield, you're gonna be successful, but I've seen them on the soy too. And, you know, and and I think that just concentrating on those mid sized wetlands is gonna be the way to go. I'd...
• 27:09
  You know, we have Montezuma in the area, and, like, that's been just loaded up of birds as it as it always been. Some of the, you know, smaller state run wetlands have been really productive.
• 27:19
  Mike Brasher: You know, when you were talking about wood ducks and and the abundant mast crop this year and the acorns that you're seeing around, well, that gets me excited to go wood duck hunting because there are few birds that taste better than an acorn fed wood duck. Man, those things are tasty. Have you have you shot any thus far this year? Have they already begun to put on some of that nice white fat?
• 27:44
  Joseph Albanese: Yeah. So we opened on October 10, and it's been... It's kind of been what I've been mostly targeting is those is those wood ducks in those tiny ponds, and they are starting to get a little bit of that fat on them. The the birds that I shot right around opening day were, you know, juvenile drakes, so they weren't as maybe pretty as they as they could be. But now they're really starting to prime up, and they are starting to get some of that good good fat on them.
• 28:08
  Birds I shot this morning, just pulled the breast feathers off and leave the skin on and, you know, sear them in the pan, and everybody's gonna have a great great dinner. But, yeah, there there is just something about them. And, again, I come from the salt, so I go... Always black ducks. But I don't know.
• 28:23
  I'm, like, probably the minority here. You know? Mallard is probably America's duck, but, you know, I love wood ducks. I love black ducks.
• 28:30
  Mike Brasher: Wood duck, man, is... I've told people wood duck is my favorite for a number of reasons, but golly, they just... They are just so dead gum tasty, and, you know, and you... And I do like you do. Once you get to the point where the pin feathers are gone and they've got that fat on there, I pluck the breast, I pluck the legs, and then I'll do some whole, but oftentimes what I do is I'll pluck all the feathers off the breast, the legs, and thighs, and I'll just kinda carve that off, and I've got 95% of the meat off of it just by doing that.
• 28:59
  Man, those things are absolutely fantastic. And and so now you are getting to that time of year where those birds are are nearing the end of that, what is it, the pre alternate molt, they're starting to get their bright breeding plumage, and you've got it getting to where they've... They're easier to pluck, and also they have that that layer of fat, so it's gonna be a good time of year, man. I appreciate you sharing that. I appreciate you sharing the update.
• 29:25
  I appreciate all the work that you do to bring this information to our our audience, whether it be through your migration alert or now through the episode that we've been recording here today. So yeah, Joe, I wish you the best here over the next several weeks. We will try to connect back with you, oh, probably in November or December to get another report on how things are going in the Northeastern US if you're okay with that.
• 29:48
  Joseph Albanese: Yeah. I'm looking forward to it, Mike. Thanks for having me on.
• 29:51
  Mike Brasher: Alright. A very special thanks to our guest on today's episode, Joe Albany from up in New York. He is Ducks Unlimited's Migration Alert Editor for the Northeastern US. We appreciate his time and the expertise that he brings to this conversation. We thank our producers, Chris Isaac and Samuel Crane, for the great work that they do with these episodes and getting them out to you on whatever platform it is that you are listening to them.
• 30:14
  And we thank you for supporting waterfowl and wetlands conservation, and as our good friend, doctor Scott Stevens says, life is short. You better hunt.
• 30:25
  VO: That's a wrap for today's episode of the Ducks Unlimited Podcast brought to you by Bird Dog Whiskey and Cocktails. From post hunt unwinds to celebrations back at camp, Bird Dog delivers award winning flavor to every moment. Enjoy responsibly. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe, and check out ducks.org/du podcast for more stories, science, and all things waterfowl. Guest opinions are their own and don't necessarily reflect those of Ducks Unlimited.
• 30:50
  Until next time, stay fired up, stay focused, and stay tuned to the Ducks.