THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997 TAG: 9702060350
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: By MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CURRITUCK LENGTH: 43 lines
Wildfowl hunting is still a way of life when winter's north winds whistle down Currituck Sound, chilling duck blinds and long johns alike.
But this year, mysteriously, there aren't many ducks.
For the hunters who shiver for hours in their blinds without firing a shot, this is exasperating enough, but it's even more challenging for game protectors and conservation agencies.
They're trying to figure out where the wild ducks went this winter when the weather has been mostly mild.
Northeastern North Carolina is on the Atlantic Flyway, the vast aerial skyway that migrating ducks and geese normally follow each year.
``It's been quite a few years since we've had such a poor season,'' said Michael Doxey, a Currituck County Soil and Water Conservation officer who lives in Aydlett.
Doxey grew up hunting and fishing on Currituck Sound, and friends say the storehouse of wild duck lore he carries in his head would fill a bookcase.
In Manns Harbor, Robert Noffsinger, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said Wednesday that ``so far we've had a mild winter but we don't know how much that has to do with the local wild duck population.
``In a few weeks we should have the results of midwinter wildfowl surveys now being made in eastern North Carolina,'' said Noffsinger, who lives in Manteo. ``This should give us some clues to where the ducks are this year.''
In Washington, Hugh Vickery, a spokesman for the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service, said he's been hearing reports of a scarcity of wild ducks in some areas.
``Sometimes we have early winter storms in the Middle West with winds that seem to disrupt the wildfowl migration patterns. That would be a year when the hunters in Louisiana have a wonderful hunting season and there are no wildfowl in the Dakotas,'' said Vickery.
In Elizabeth City, one hunter and businessman who lives for each year's brief duck season said Mexico was now the place to go to find the ducks that used to gather in Currituck.
``That's where they are, the east coast of Mexico,'' the businessman said. ``Good shooting and good limits,'' he added, requesting anonymity in case any of his customers objected to his shooting wild ducks.