A little better than a month into North Dakota's hunting seasons, it seems fewer out-of-state hunters are coming than in years past.

And it's the waterfowl hunters who are staying home.

Paul Schadewald, chief of administration for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, said as of the end of the business day Tuesday, sales of non-resident waterfowl licenses stood at 15,573, down 23 percent from a year ago.

Call it the drought, the economy, the gas prices - all seem to be a factor in fewer waterfowlers coming to North Dakota than in recent years.

Generally speaking, wetland conditions in the state are in tough shape from the central portion of the state and westward.

Things improve for the waterfowl and for the hunter starting at about the Jamestown area and eastward.

Schadewald said the license sales quoted reflect only online sales.

"There are some paper licenses out there," he said.

He said some vendors, not all, have gone to online licensing.

Even with the economy and the drought, all is not gloom and doom.

Irene and Dennis Jeffreys have had the Garrison Motel since 1992. Irene Jeffreys said right now their 30-unit motel on the north side of Lake Sakakawea is almost full with out-of-state hunters.

She said hunters will typically time their trips so they can hunter waterfowl in the mornings and upland game in the afternoons.

"We have hunters from Minnesota, Wisconsin and even from the East Coast," she said. "We even have some guys flying in from Virginia tonight."

Jeffreys said in a normal year their motel, which also features three furnished cabins, stays pretty busy through mid-November.

One factor, which Jeffreys also eluded to, was that right now there are still a lot of crops standing, giving birds added cover.

That, and it may be a bit early for a lot of the northern waterfowl to push south through the plains to their wintering grounds.

Schadewald said for small game license sales, there were 18,745 sold over the Web as of Tuesday. That represented a 3 percent decline over a year ago at this time.

"It's been kind of a quiet year," he said. "Not as much traffic as usual."

Schadewald said sales of non-resident small game licenses peaked in 2002 at slightly more than 46,500.

Last year, he said about 38,000 small game licenses were sold.

(Reach reporter Brian Gehring at 250-8254 or brian.gehring@bismarcktribune.com.)