Saturday morning, 30 minutes before sunrise, shotgun trigger fingers will be itchy. This will be the opening day of the 2022 Early Teal Season.
Once again the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has deemed Texas the maximum allowable days for hunting (16) for the early season. I always joke about the popularity of Teal hunting and how it’s an exercise in physical torture.
Snakes and mosquitoes love good Teal habitat. Add the predawn activities required of Teal hunting, this puts duck hunters in the dark, in a boat/wading, looking for a nice place to hunker down. Snakes are curious and will likely check out the hunter minding their own business.
Oh and shortly after daylight, a sweet reminder of Texas in the middle of September can feel exactly like Texas in the middle August. Lovely.
Still we show up every year and probably will, until we’re no longer able.
Each spring the USFW surveys breeding conditions then later into summer aerial surveys/counts are done to count breeding pairs. There have been no USFW surveys done since 2019 due to COVID restrictions, (because everyone knows COVID is easily spread by aerial surveys).
All that has changed and 2022 found the agency back in the air counting ducks and duck production conditions. The news is not very exciting except for a few species of migratory waterfowl. Teal, specifically Blue Wing numbers, are up and appear to be doing fantastic. The 2022 BWT population is estimated at nearly 6.5 million birds. This is a 19% increase over the 2019 count by a little over a million birds.
This is awesome news in an otherwise bleak survey. The Mallard count is down 23% (7.2 million) from 2019 numbers of 9.4 million. Scaup and Redheads are the only other species to increase since 2019. Gadwalls, Wigeons, Green Wing Teal, Canvasbacks, and Pintails all decreased significantly.
The Blue wings are here and as forecast, are here in good numbers. Some BWT winter in Texas, some in Mexico/Central America and some winter below the equator, well into South America. They truly are all-star travelers.
The big reservoirs are already hosting BWT’s. Toledo Bend and Sam Rayburn are low and set up perfect for Teal hunting. Lake O’ the Pines usually has great numbers at some point during the season. The Teal come and go on a whim or any hint of an early cold front.
Much of their travels from Canada or the northern U.S. breeding grounds will take place at night. This explains that big grass flat being empty one day only to be crowded with the birds the next.
Scouting still is the best way to success or success at getting a shot. If you are able to cruise around on the lake Friday, check every backwater or shallow area with vegetation. Duckweed and buck brush is an awesome ingredient to start with. These little ducks are dabblers and will usually gather in larger numbers if there is a sufficient food source.
Be aware, every Teal on the lake may blast off for Central America at any moment. Keep in mind what an old duck hunter once told me.
“You never know, until you go.”
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