{"id":48686,"date":"2026-10-09T12:07:02","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T16:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=48686"},"modified":"2026-10-09T13:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T17:00:20","slug":"fall-duck-hunting-underway-across-maryland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2026\/10\/09\/fall-duck-hunting-underway-across-maryland\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall Duck Hunting Underway Across Maryland"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 449px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53543608919_68cf4b852a.jpg\" alt=\"Duck with blue feathers in flight near some woods\" width=\"439\" height=\"339\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wood duck in flight. Photo by Scott Suriano, submitted to the 2023 Maryland DNR Photo Contest.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The mornings are becoming crisp and ducks are on the move, creating ideal conditions for Maryland&#8217;s regular fall duck season. The first split of Maryland Eastern Zone Regular Duck Season opens on October 10 and runs through October 17. The Western Zone Regular Duck Season is currently open and also closes October 17.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Boundaries of the duck season zones can be found on the Maryland Department of Natural Resources<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/maryland.maps.arcgis.com\/apps\/webappviewer\/index.html?id=caf337498c1b4da2b2081f542be6d6bc&amp;utm_source=chatgpt.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">interactive map<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or listed on page 44 of the<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eregulations.com\/assets\/docs\/guides\/26MDHD_LR6.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">2026-2027 Maryland Guide to Hunting and Trapping<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The early duck season is the ideal time for everyone to get out and enjoy some hunting success,&#8221; said Karina Stonesifer, Director of DNR\u2019s Wildlife and Heritage Service. &#8220;Ducks are plentiful and the weather conditions are more favorable for getting youth and new hunters,and those who have taken time off from hunting, afield.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Any adult participating in duck season will need to<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/mdoutdoors.maryland.gov\/login\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">purchase<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> both a<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/pages\/service_hunting_license.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maryland Migratory Game Bird Stamp and a Federal Duck Stamp<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Youth hunters, including those possessing an<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/nrp\/pages\/about-the-apprenticeship-hunting-license.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">apprentice license<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, must purchase a Maryland Migratory Game Bird Stamp but do not need to purchase a Federal Duck Stamp if under 16 years of age.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The daily bag limit for the Regular Duck Season in both the Eastern and Western Duck Zones is:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">6 ducks, no more than:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">4 mallards (only 2 can be hens)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">3 wood ducks<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">2 black ducks (closed in October)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">2 canvasbacks<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">3 pintails<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">2 redheads<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1 scaup per day (2 per day from Jan. 8 \u2013 Jan. 30)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1 fulvous tree duck<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1 mottled duck<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">4 sea ducks: no more than 3 scoters, 3 long-tailed ducks, or 3 eiders (only 1 eider hen).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">More details about the season and additional bag limits and species limits can be found <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eregulations.com\/maryland\/hunting\/migratory-game-bird-seasons-limits\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">online<\/span><\/a> or at <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">DNR&#8217;s<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/wildlife\/pages\/hunt_trap\/home.aspx\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hunting in Maryland<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> webpage.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The mornings are becoming crisp and ducks are on the move, creating ideal conditions for Maryland&#8217;s regular fall duck season. The first split of Maryland Eastern Zone Regular Duck Season opens on October 10 and runs through October 17. The Western Zone Regular Duck Season is currently open and also closes October 17.\u00a0 Boundaries of<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2026\/10\/09\/fall-duck-hunting-underway-across-maryland\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,3172],"tags":[3094,4960,3030],"class_list":["post-48686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-hunting","tag-ducks","tag-hunting","tag-waterfowl"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48686"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48699,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48686\/revisions\/48699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}