With everyone getting ready for the opening of dove season, don’t forget the Teal waterfowl season is also quickly coming up. Teal season opens on Sept. 17. This is another season where you sweat a lot. Since your are hunting around or over water, mosquitoes can be an annoyance. Be sure to bring you best mosquito repellant.
Texas Parks & Wildlife Department reports the good news of record-setting waterfowl populations, with nearly all species numbering above the long term goals identified in the North American Waterfowl Management Plan. Most species of ducks important to Texas waterfowlers are well above long term averages, with mallards and green-winged teal reaching new all-time highs.
The Green Winged Teall (www.ducks.org) is described as the smallest of our North American ducks with a short neck and small bill. The males have a chestnut head with an iridescent green to purple patch extending from the eyes to the nape of the neck. The chest is pinkish-brown with black speckles, and the back, sides and flanks are vermiculated gray, separated from the chest by a white bar. Males have a distinctive high-pitched "preep-preep call."
Female green-winged teal are mottled brown with a dark brown line that extends from the bill through the eye. The bill is dark gray and the legs and feet are olive-gray to brownish-gray. Relatively silent but has a sharp, high "quack" when flushed.
The coastal marshes and rice fields of Louisiana and Texas provide ideal habitat. Tidal creeks and freshwater marshes associated with estuaries are favored over more saline or open-water habitats.
The feed on seeds of sedges, smartweeds, pondweeds, grasses, aquatic insects, mollusks, crustaceans and tadpoles while foraging in and adjacent to mudflats or while dabbling in shallow water.
Blue-winged teal are generally the first ducks south in the fall. They migrate to wintering areas in Florida, the Caribbean Islands, and the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana. One of the the highest winter densities occur in southern Texas.
The male blue-winged teal have a slate gray head and neck, a black-edged white crescent in front of the eyes and a blackish crown. The breast and sides are tan with dark brown speckles and there is a white spot on the side of the rump. Most of the upper wing coverts are blue-gray, the secondaries form an iridescent green speculum and the underwing is whitish. The bill is black and the legs and feet are yellowish to orange. The male has a thin whistled "tsee tsee" uttered both in flight and when on water.
Female blue-winged teal have a brownish-gray head with a darker crown and eye stripe. The breast and sides are brown, the upper parts are olive brown, and the upper wing coverts are bluish, but less vibrant than the drake. The bill is gray-black and the legs and feet are dull yellow-brown. The female has a high-pitched squeak.
Nesting habitat includes wetland areas within grasslands, such as shallow marshes, sloughs, flooded ditches and temporary ponds.
The like to dabble on the vegetative parts of aquatic plants (algae, duckweeds, pondweeds, etc.), seeds (sedges, pondweeds, grasses, etc.) and large amounts of aquatic invertebrates found in shallowly flooded wetlands.
The male cinnamon teal have a cinnamon-red head, neck, breast and belly. They have an iridescent green speculum, which is separated from a bluish shoulder patch by a white stripe. The back, rump, uppertail coverts and tail are a dull brown and the undertail coverts are black. They have a distinctive red eye, a black bill and yellow legs and feet. The male gives a thin whistled "peep" or "peer."
Female cinnamon teal are often confused with female blue-winged teal. They have a duller blue shoulder patch, an overall rustier color and are more heavily streaked. Female cinnamon teal have a somewhat more guttural quacking than female blue-winged teal.
Normally we don’t see too many Cinamon teal in Texas, but they are often associated with a flock of blue-winged teal, most likely attaching themselves to the flock on their mutual breeding grounds.
Cinnamon teal dabble on aquatic plants in shallow water areas, especially rush seeds, pondweed seeds and leaves and salt grass seeds. They also feed on animal food, especially aquatic insects and mollusks.
This is a lot of information at one time, but DU has great App that they provide for both the android and I phone. (http://www.ducks.org/hunting/mobile-apps/ducks-unlimited-waterfowlers-journal-app?poe=hunthome).
I have hunted Teal in ponds, flooded rice fields and down along the coast. I think of the teal as fighter jet. They don’t waste any time lollygagging around. I think the best hunting I have had was down on the coast, concealed in the natural cover along the Intracoastal canal east of Bolivar. There were a lot of birds, and you could see the birds coming up the canal before they located me.
In addition to a hunting license and completing Hunter Safety Training and HIP, waterfowl hunters need Texas Migratory Game Bird Stamp Endorsement, $7.00, and the Federal Migratory Bird stamp which can be purchased at the Post Office.
Image credit: www.allaboutbirds.org
