It may be a little early to set your duck hunting schedule for 2019 but New York's DEC is already preparing for the fall season. Following a two year study, dates have been set with bag limits to be announced later.

The DEC and Cornell University interviewed a third of New York's duck hunters and combined it with recent duck counts and migration data to establish the "optimal season" in each zone. The survey of approximately 6-thousand hunters also revealed some interesting hunting preferences.

  • Hunter's favorite ducks are wood, teal, mallard, and black ducks.
  • Include more weekends and holidays into the season.
  • Minimize the overlap of duck and deer seasons.

After crunching all the data, here are the 2019-2010 duck season in New York. Each zone will have the season split into two segments.
Northeastern Zone - Oct. 5, 2019 - Oct. 27, 2019 and Nov. 2, 2019 - Dec. 8, 2019
Southeastern Zone - Oct. 19, 2019 - Dec. 1, 2019 and Dec. 7, 2019 - Dec. 22, 2019
Western Zone -  Oct. 19, 2019 - Nov. 10, 2019 and Nov. 30, 2019 - Jan. 5, 2020
Long Island Zone - Nov. 23, 2019 - Dec. 1, 2019 and Dec. 7, 2019 - Jan. 26, 2020

New York Waterfowl Zones 2019
DEC.gov
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Data from the survey will be used to establish seasons for the next 4 seasons. Bag limits will be announced in early April. Get more specifics on boundaries for each zone. Read more on the hunter survey results.

 

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