Waterfowl hunters head to wetlands for start of duck season

SOCIAL CIRCLE — Many hunters headed for their favorite wetland location for the opening day of the Georgia duck hunting season on Saturday, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division.

“Waterfowl hunters should note a few bag limit changes this year — the hooded merganser restriction has been removed, so ‘hoodies’ can account for any or all of the merganser bag limit of five per day,” Kara Nitschke, DNR migratory gamebird biologist, said. “Additionally, the sea duck limit has been reduced to four per day, only three of which may be scoters, long-tailed ducks, or eiders, and only one may be a female eider.”

Duck season dates are Nov. 19-27 and Dec. 10-Jan. 29. Full migratory bird hunting regulations can be found at GeorgiaWildlife.com/migratory-bird-info.

To hunt waterfowl in Georgia, hunters need a Georgia hunting license, a Georgia migratory bird license, and a federal duck stamp (now available when you purchase your other recreational licenses). WRD has made purchase decisions even easier by the creation of the Waterfowl Hunter Package at GoOutdoorsGeorgia.com, which includes all the licenses hunters need (and includes an attractive plastic license card).

For more information on Georgia Hunting Regulations for waterfowl, visit GeorgiaWildlife.com/migratory-bird-info.

Special Photo: Georgia DNR