Late-arriving teal make for slower season

The first blue-winged teal of the day plopped into the decoys 10 minutes or so before shooting time, immediately figured something was amiss, bounced aloft in a shower of spray and sped away on blurred wings.

Mattie, Rob Sawyer's young Maserati of a black Lab, watched the birds disappear into the darkness surrounding the shallow wetland in Matagorda County, and whined. Just a few hunts into her first teal season, Mattie's learning the intricacies of waterfowling. Already a steady, smart and impeccably trained retriever that takes hand signals and whistle commands like a pro, she's still absorbing the complexities of the hunt - things such as why her companions try to take only some of the birds that come sailing overhead or skidding out of the sky to land among the decoys.

Mattie wasn't the only one trying to resolve the vagaries of waterfowling. Her human companions, and most of the other 30,000 or so waterfowlers who participate in the 16-day, teal-only season that closes Sunday, have had their own questions. One of the big ones has been, "Where are all the blue-winged teal?"

It's not that there aren't any of the early-migrating little ducks in Texas. There are lots - tens of thousands. And some wetlands are holding excellent numbers of bluewings recharging themselves before heading to wintering grounds farther south. We were on such a wetland, one of the well-managed, moist-soil compartments created by the private Thunderbird Hunting Club. Other wetlands, especially second-crop rice fields holding a blanket of inches-deep water, also have attracted good numbers of bluewings.

'We've been spoiled'

But, overall, teal abundance, and teal hunter success, has been, at best, spotty this season. Some hunters have had excellent success, often taking their six-teal daily limits. But hunters on some of what traditionally has been sure-thing teal country have seen few birds and had, at best, modest success.

What's going on? Isn't the continent's bluewing population, estimated this spring to hold 8.5 million breeding birds, near a 50-plus-year high? And doesn't Texas' coastal prairies and marshes during September always hold extraordinary numbers of the fast-flying little ducks and provide almost certain success for teal hunters?

"The truth is, we've been spoiled with such great teal seasons in the past," said Matt Kaminski, Richmond-based regional biologist for Ducks Unlimited. "We don't know how to act when it's not great everywhere."

For the second consecutive season, most Texas teal hunters are seeing fewer ducks than in past seasons. It seems the bulk of the bluewings, which migrate ahead of other ducks and constitute about 90 percent of the teal taken during the September season, have yet to make it to Texas.

"We just haven't seen the numbers of teal we usually do," said Todd Steele, a principle in Thunderbird Hunting Club. "We're having good hunts, but the bulk of the migration hasn't got here yet. Last year, we had a really late hatch and a delayed migration. This year, the migration is on a more normal schedule, but the birds are still north of us."

Evidence supported Steele's observation. Wet, mild conditions in the Midwest have created favorable habitat for migrating waterfowl, and bluewings are tarrying. Refuges and state wildlife areas in Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Oklahoma reported huge concentrations of bluewings holding in those states.

Wetland habitat

And some bluewings have yet to leave their nesting grounds. Kevin Kraai, waterfowl program leader for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, is in Canada this week to participate in an annual aerial survey of white-fronted geese.

"There are way too many bluewings still up here," Kraai said in an email late Wednesday afternoon.

Bluewings' laggardly migration has made for spotty concentrations of birds in Texas and placed a premium on top-quality wetland habitat.

"Where you have really good habitat - shallow wetlands with a lot of aquatic vegetation or, especially, flooded rice fields - you're going to see teal," Kaminski said.

The problem is, such habitat is increasingly rare on the Texas coast. Drought-triggered cut-off of irrigation water from the Colorado River has resulted in a dramatic decline in rice acreage and man-made, managed wetlands on prairies west and southwest of Houston.

Rice acreage east of Houston, where water for irrigation is more available, saw a dramatic jump this year. And that increase in rice acreage has benefited teal and teal hunters this season.

"We've had a really good teal season," said Scott Goodman, whose Texas Waterfowl Outfitters runs guided teal hunts on flooded rice in Chambers and Liberty counties. "Opening weekend was a little slow, but it's been really great since then."

Others with access to prime habitat also have had great hunts. Members of Thunderbird Hunting Club, who hunt on club-leased/managed tracts in Matagorda, Wharton and Jackson counties, have enjoyed steady success over the season, averaging 5.5 teal per hunter heading into this final weekend.

"We haven't been covered up with teal like some seasons," Steele said as we pecked away the small but steady flights of bluewings working the shallow wetland this past Sunday morning. "But we're doing good."

While some hot spots have seen outstanding hunter success, overall success has been as erratic as the distribution of teal. Waterfowlers on the coastal marsh of the Big Hill Unit of the J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Area in Jefferson County have averaged only 0.79 teal per hunter so far this season. Those hunting the adjacent Salt Bayou Unit of the Murphree WMA have averaged 2.37 teal per hunter.

Hunters on the Justin Hurst WMA near Freeport, which saw a fair amount of habitat-stimulating rains in late summer, have had fair success with an average of about two teal per hunter, said Matt Nelson, who oversees TPWD's central coast wetland programs.

Rains have mostly missed Mad Island WMA, near Bay City, and the resulting dry conditions and struggling habitat have drawn fewer teal. Hunters have averaged a little more than one teal apiece.

"It's been pretty slow. It just seems like the birds haven't got here yet," Nelson said. "But you know how teal are; they can show up overnight."

Texas waterfowlers heading afield for this final weekend of the 2014 teal season hope they do.