Lake Eufaula, Blackshear and Albany Duck Migration Forecast

Where Lake Eufaula, Blackshear and Albany is

Lake Eufaula, Blackshear and Albany is drawn from 18 counties in Georgia: Calhoun, Chattahoochee, Clay, Crisp, Dooly, Dougherty, Lee, Macon, Marion, Quitman, Randolph, Schley, Stewart, Sumter, Taylor, Terrell, Webster and Worth. Those are the counties its shape on the DuckCast map is built from, so a hunter in any of them reads this region’s score.

Public ground with waterfowl hunting

• Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge, Bradley Unit (Stewart County): Duck hunting from spaced blinds assigned by lottery; the refuge's common ducks are wood duck, ring-necked duck, shoveler and gadwall.
• Lake Walter F. George WMA (Clay County): About 923 acres of land and islands on the 45,000-acre lake.
• Chickasawhatchee WMA (Dougherty County): About 19,700 acres; Georgia DNR lists waterfowl among the game.
• Cordele Fish Hatchery (Crisp County): Duck hunting by quota on a designated pond.

Seasons, permits, draws and open days change from year to year, so check the state wildlife agency’s rules, linked below, before you go.

When Lake Eufaula, Blackshear and Albany peaks

DuckCast’s season model puts the wood duck peak here around early December. The timing follows the statewide curve; what differs here is how many birds the model expects, below. That is a modelled typical curve, not a prediction for any single year. The actual push depends on cold fronts and freeze-up upstream, which is what the daily score tracks. Always confirm season dates with the state wildlife agency, linked below.

Which birds the model expects in Lake Eufaula, Blackshear and Albany

In DuckCast’s season model, the species that can score highest in Lake Eufaula, Blackshear and Albany are wood ducks, Canada geese and mallards. Against the state as a whole, it expects more gadwall and mallards in Lake Eufaula, Blackshear and Albany and fewer snow geese.

Those weights come from harvest records, survey counts and the kind of water, not from a count taken here each season. They cap how high each species’ score can climb; the weather still has to bring the birds.

What DuckCast watches upstream of Lake Eufaula, Blackshear and Albany

4 upstream stations feed this region's freeze line, nearest first: Hiwassee Refuge, TN, about 240 miles north, Woods Reservoir, TN, about 250 miles northwest, Old Hickory Lake, TN, about 325 miles northwest and New Johnsonville, TN, about 350 miles northwest. When those stations ice over, the score here starts climbing before anything changes in the local sky.

Radar over Lake Eufaula, Blackshear and Albany

Each morning DuckCast reads the night’s NEXRAD data from KEOX, the National Weather Service radar at Fort Rucker, about 75 miles southwest of the region’s weather point. That is well outside the region, so treat the radar reading as area context rather than a measurement of this ground. Radar sees every bird in the air, not only ducks, so it confirms or questions the score rather than moving it.

Locations stay generalized

Hunter reports for Lake Eufaula, Blackshear and Albany are always shown at the region level. DuckCast never collects or displays exact coordinates, so filing a report here never burns a spot.