Migration Alert: Recent Rains Improve North Carolina Duck Habitat

The second season of North Carolina’s Inland Duck Zone opens November 8, and recent rains that helped fill impoundments, coupled with this week’s “beaver moon,” the brightest supermoon of 2025, has the Tarheel State’s new migratory game bird biologist optimistic.

“The state's managed impoundments are now holding water, just waiting for the ducks to find them,” says Fran Farley with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. “Our first swans have arrived in small numbers, and we have reports of scoters trickling into our coastal waters since the middle of October. There are some concentrations of pintails, with a mix of other dabblers as well, but not much for other big dabbling ducks and divers. There was a nice push of wigeon and gadwalls along the coast over the weekend and some reports of ringnecks showing up recently. As these birds settle into the area, hopefully this will translate into some shooting opportunities for hunters on the opener. The full moon on November 5 might trigger some migration behavior, so hopefully habitat conditions will continue to improve and, with it, waterfowl numbers too.”

Ed Farley, DU’s manager of conservation programs for Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, says the first segment of North Carolina’s inland season (Oct. 16-18) produced spotty action. “Overall, I don't think the duck numbers are great right now,” he says, “but we saw enough to get some shooting.”

Birds are in the area, but they seem to be localized, Fran Farley reports, noting, “I know of at least one area in Hyde County that had great bird numbers, especially pintails. There are some puddle ducks using the salt marshes in the area too. We saw the first handful of swans last weekend, which makes sense. I expect a big push of them sometime before the season opens.”