Some irregular waterfowl visitors are migrating through the Lac qui Parle area these days.

"Marsh Lake, just up the stream from us here, is loaded with waterfowl now. Several thousand ducks and a couple thousand geese are on it. We had a nice input of waterfowl through the area starting last Friday, Saturday and into Sunday," said Curt Vacek, Appleton Area wildlife manager. "A lot of snow geese even migrating through. … So it was actually a pretty nice movement of birds over the weekend."

Vacek said weather will in large part determine the movement of birds, particularly Canada geese. If there is substantial snow in Canada and northern Minnesota, the geese will move in. "As long as we don't have snow on the fields here, we'll hold birds on the fields here through the winter, too," Vacek said.

He said there have been huge rafts of ducks in the middle of Marsh Lake. In good weather, evenings on the ridge overlooking the lake is a choice time and location to break out the binoculars.