Duck Country and Goose Country Are Different Maps

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates duck and goose harvest for every state and county from its hunter survey, and it presents the results as roughly 10-year averages. We compared the agency's duck and goose rankings for 49 states and for counties. Only 5 of the top 10 states are the same for both birds, and only 3 counties reach the national top 10 for both, so a single "waterfowl" ranking sends some hunters to the wrong bird's country.

The survey ranks states by the estimated number of birds hunters killed. Here are the top 10 for each bird, side by side.

Five states appear in both columns: Texas (4th for ducks, 1st for geese), Minnesota (5th and 2nd), California (2nd and 3rd), North Dakota (7th and 5th) and Arkansas (3rd and 8th). Louisiana, Missouri, Wisconsin, Washington and Oregon are top 10 duck states that miss the goose top 10. Maryland, Michigan, New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania are the reverse.

Among the 49 ranked states, six have the widest disagreement between their duck rank and their goose rank.

Florida is 21st for ducks and 49th for geese. Mississippi is 14th and 36th. Louisiana leads the country for ducks yet sits 17th for geese. Going the other direction, Maryland is 31st for ducks and 4th for geese, Pennsylvania is 35th and 10th, and Colorado is 33rd and 15th. A hunter who read only the duck list would never see Maryland, Pennsylvania or Colorado.

The next table lists every county in the national top 10 for either bird.

Six of the ten top duck counties are Louisiana parishes, three are in California and one is in Arkansas. The ten top goose counties are spread across seven states: Texas, Maryland, California, Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana and North Dakota. Only three counties make both lists: Vermilion Parish, Louisiana (3rd for ducks, 9th for geese), Arkansas County, Arkansas (5th and 5th) and Colusa County, California (6th and 4th).

Other rows show how far apart the two rankings can run. Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, is 4th for ducks and 1,934th for geese. Kent County, Maryland, is 3rd for geese and 260th for ducks, and Weld County, Colorado, is 7th for geese and 129th for ducks.

Both rankings come from the Service's Harvest Information Program survey. The agency's survey page says it estimates a state's harvest by multiplying the average number of ducks shot per hunter by the number of duck hunters, and it shows state and regional results as 10-year averages. A rank therefore reflects how many people hunt and how hard they hunt as well as how many birds are around, and the tables cannot separate those. A state near the top can be a crowded one.

County figures are softer than state figures. The survey covers 3,115 counties and census units in the contiguous states, and over the past 10 years it has recorded duck harvest in 86% of them and goose harvest in 69%. The agency adds that a unit with no harvest reported may have harvest at rates too low for the survey to record. Read a county rank in the hundreds or thousands as "not a hotspot," and give it no more precision than that.

The ranks cover a decade of hunting. They cannot tell you about this year's migration, water conditions, season dates or bag limits.

Decide which bird you want before you read any ranking. For ducks alone, Louisiana, California and Arkansas hold the top three state ranks, and the top three county ranks go to Merced County in California and to Cameron and Vermilion parishes in Louisiana. For geese alone, Texas, Minnesota and California lead the states, while Colorado County and Wharton County in Texas and Kent County in Maryland lead the counties. If Maryland or Pennsylvania is closer to your driveway than the Gulf Coast, note that both are in the goose top 10 (4th and 10th) and outside the duck top 10 (31st and 35th).

For a mixed bag, start with the five states in both top 10 lists, and for a single base camp look at the three counties that appear in both county lists. The near-misses in the county table are worth a look too. Butte County, California, ranks 8th for ducks and 13th for geese, and Glenn County, California, ranks 13th for ducks and 8th for geese. Colorado County, Texas, is first for geese and 12th for ducks, and Wharton County, Texas, is second for geese and 24th for ducks. Each of those is a strong county for one bird that still ranks well for the other.

Once you have a shortlist, set the ranks aside and check season dates, bag limits and public access for the specific place, because the survey does not carry any of that. Because the ranks follow hunter numbers as well as birds, a highly ranked place may also be a crowded one, and these tables give no way to tell.