Season dates will be selected next month
The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is seeking public comment on upcoming migratory game bird hunting seasons. It is also advising hunters of several important changes for the 2020-21 seasons.
Comments can be submitted online through 11:59 p.m. on March 27. The Commission will select the season dates at its April 23 business meeting.
Migratory game birds include waterfowl, doves, woodcock, rails, snipe, and gallinules and moorhens.
In response to a decrease in the estimated number of eastern population tundra swans, the number of permits allocated to the Atlantic Flyway will be reduced from 7,000 to 5,600. And the number of permits issued to North Carolina will be reduced from 6,115 to 4,895 for the 2020-21 hunting season.
Federal frameworks for the 2020-21 hunting season on scaup call for a restrictive season. In the Atlantic Flyway, states may choose to hold all their 60 scaup hunting days with a one-bird daily bag limit. Or states may choose to have a “hybrid” scaup hunting season. Under a hybrid season, states may choose 40 days of scaup hunting with a one-bird daily bag limit and 20 days of scaup hunting with a two-bird daily bag limit (60 total days).
Brant season length will increase to 50 days
This year’s federal frameworks will increase the brant hunting season from 30 days to a 50-day season with a two-bird daily bag limit. The currently approved Atlantic Flyway Brant Hunt Plan allows a 50-day season with a two-bird daily bag. But the Commission is proposing to continue to remain more restrictive than federal frameworks allow and seeks feedback on a 37-day brant season (coinciding with the last segment of the general duck season) with a reduced bag limit of one brant per day.
Finally, beginning in the 2020-21 hunting season, the framework ending date for rails, gallinules and moorhens is extended from the last Sunday in January to an ending date of Jan. 31 each year.
Read a more detailed overview of the important changes to the 2020-21 seasons. The Commission’s website also lists the federal frameworks from which seasons may be selected and a direct link to a map of North Carolina’s Canada goose hunt zones.
For more information on migratory game birds in North Carolina, visit the Commission’s What to Hunt page.
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