Southern Coastal Plain and Sandhills Duck Migration Forecast

Where Southern Coastal Plain and Sandhills is

Southern Coastal Plain and Sandhills is drawn from 11 counties in North Carolina: Bladen, Columbus, Cumberland, Duplin, Harnett, Hoke, Moore, Richmond, Robeson, Sampson and Scotland. 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

• Suggs Mill Pond Game Land (Bladen and Cumberland counties): Permit hunting on Carolina bay lakes, flooded crops and moist-soil areas; ring-necked duck, wood duck and green-winged teal.
• Whitehall Plantation Game Land (Bladen County): Permit hunting on beaver ponds and river sloughs.
• Sandhills Game Land (Hoke, Moore, Richmond and Scotland counties)

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 Southern Coastal Plain and Sandhills peaks

DuckCast’s season model puts the green-winged teal peak here around late 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 Southern Coastal Plain and Sandhills

In DuckCast’s season model, the species that can score highest in Southern Coastal Plain and Sandhills are wood ducks, green-winged teal and mallards. Against the state as a whole, it expects fewer scoters, snow geese, black ducks, pintails, wigeon, gadwall, green-winged teal and blue-winged teal in Southern Coastal Plain and Sandhills.

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 Southern Coastal Plain and Sandhills

4 upstream stations feed this region's freeze line, nearest first: Lynchburg, VA, about 175 miles north, Hog Island, VA, about 200 miles northeast, Fredericksburg, VA, about 250 miles north and Blackwater, MD, about 290 miles northeast. When those stations ice over, the score here starts climbing before anything changes in the local sky.

Radar over Southern Coastal Plain and Sandhills

Each morning DuckCast reads the night’s NEXRAD data from KRAX, the National Weather Service radar at Raleigh, about 60 miles north of the region’s weather point. That puts the radar just outside the region, near enough to see birds lifting off and passing close by. 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 Southern Coastal Plain and Sandhills are always shown at the region level. DuckCast never collects or displays exact coordinates, so filing a report here never burns a spot.