As the weather turns colder in Canada, the duck hunting gets hotter in Southern Illinois, according to local hunters and wildlife officials.

We’ve got good numbers of ducks in Southern Illinois right now and the population looks really good at this point, said Dennis Thornburg, regional wildlife biologist for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources at Rend Lake.

Although the duck migration to Southern Illinois has been fairly steady, Thornburg said there are still a lot of birds in the northern part of the U.S. and Canada.

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Right now is generally the peak of the mallard migration and it’s quite similar to what we’ve seen in the past, Thornburg said. There are probably still quite a few ducks north of us, so there are a lot of ducks yet to come into this area.

It really needs to get good and cold up north to bring them down here.

Thornburg said since the cold weather has just started to reach the northern areas, where the ducks begin their migration, the full impact of this years migration may be felt somewhat later than usual.

Ray Marshalla, head of the IDNR Wetlands and Migratory Birds section in Springfield, said much of North Dakota and parts of Canada are just now experiencing the cooler weather trends.

Last week, North Dakota was getting temperature highs in the 20’s, but it’s expected to moderate back into the 30’s soon, Marshalla said. However, I think the short period they experienced in the 20’s was long enough to really start the migration southward.

We are a little bit behind in terms of numbers, but a lot more ducks are coming and I expect the migration numbers to increase real soon.

Despite the slow migration, hunters have plenty of time to get their fair share of duck hunting before the season runs out.

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Because of excellent breeding populations for ducks, this years season, which began Nov. 4 in the Southern Zone, has been extended to 50 days, compared to 40 days last season. This years season runs until Dec. 23 in the southern zone.

Because of solid populations, the daily bag limit has also increased to five birds per day.

According to estimates by the IDNR, mallard breeding populations last spring were at 8.3 million, which is an increase of 18 percent over previous years and the highest since 1972.

This year’s limit may include no more than four mallards (only one of which may be a hen), two wood ducks, one pintail, one redhead, one black duck and one canvasback.

Thornburg said Southern Illinois hunters have reported successful days so far this season.

He said there has been a good mix of other species in this year’s migration, including gadwall, widgeon and teal.

Thornburg said because there is usually such a large number of ducks in the Southern Illinois quota zone, which is made up of Jackson, Williamson, Union and Alexander counties, the IDNR rarely make an attempt to record the number in the area.

John Hinde, co-owner of the Wildlife Refuge in Carbondale has been out every day since the duck season began. Hinde said so far the 1995 season has been fairly good for local hunters and he expects it to only get better.

Despite not having an official bird count, there are large numbers of ducks in the region already, Hinde said.

Hinde said he has hunted several public and private hunting areas and has been able to bag a variety of different species, including mallards, teal, widgeon and gadwall.

So far this season is going real well, Hinde said. We have been seeing a lot of ducks in the area. I think the season is fair right now but will get a lot better. Once it starts getting cold up north we we’ll be seeing a lot more ducks.