Santee Delta and Charleston Coast Duck Migration Forecast

Where Santee Delta and Charleston Coast is

Santee Delta and Charleston Coast is drawn from 2 counties in South Carolina: Charleston and Georgetown. 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

• Santee Coastal Reserve WMA (Georgetown and Charleston counties): SCDNR Category I lottery area with about 14,000 acres managed for submerged and emergent plants.
• Santee Delta WMA (Georgetown County): SCDNR Category I lottery area in East and West units, with about 1,135 acres of managed freshwater wetlands.
• Samworth WMA (Georgetown County): SCDNR Category I lottery area with about 802 acres of managed tidal freshwater wetlands.
• Carr Creek and Little Carr Creek (Georgetown County): SCDNR Category II area inside Samworth WMA.
• Santee Island WMA (Georgetown County): SCDNR Category II area, open on the days and times SCDNR sets.

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 Santee Delta and Charleston Coast peaks

DuckCast’s season model puts the wood duck peak here around mid 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 Santee Delta and Charleston Coast

In DuckCast’s season model, the species that can score highest in Santee Delta and Charleston Coast are green-winged teal, gadwall and blue-winged teal. Against the state as a whole, it expects more wigeon, pintails, blue-winged teal, gadwall, scoters and green-winged teal in Santee Delta and Charleston Coast and fewer wood ducks, mallards and Canada 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 Santee Delta and Charleston Coast

4 upstream stations feed this region's freeze line, nearest first: Jordan Lake, NC, about 180 miles north, Roanoke River, NC, about 230 miles northeast, Kerr Lake, NC, about 235 miles north and Pungo Lake, NC, about 240 miles northeast. When those stations ice over, the score here starts climbing before anything changes in the local sky.

Radar over Santee Delta and Charleston Coast

Each morning DuckCast reads the night’s NEXRAD data from KLTX, the National Weather Service radar at Wilmington, about 80 miles northeast 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 Santee Delta and Charleston Coast are always shown at the region level. DuckCast never collects or displays exact coordinates, so filing a report here never burns a spot.