By Taylor Finger, WDNR Migratory Game Bird Ecologist
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s September, 2020 Newsletter.
Hello Waterfowlers!
Hunting season is finally here, and if you are like me it couldn’t get here fast enough. It has been a long spring and summer having to navigate everything that 2020 has thrown at us, but hopefully now we can get out and do the thing we love; and that is pursuing ducks and geese. Tuesday marks opening day for the Early Teal season and Early Goose season and the weather for much of the state fortunately looks cooler than what we have had the past couple of weeks.
Female Green-Winged Teal, photo courtesy WDNR
Regarding population and numbers, due to restrictions on traveling and social distancing the WDNR and USFWS were not able to conduct spring breeding population surveys this year, so we do not have a number to provide on how the goose and teal populations fared this spring. However, based on feedback I have received from across the state, the local Canada goose population looks excellent and we had a solid breeding year. As for Blue-winged Teal, much of the US Prairie Potholes had excellent breeding conditions and Prairie Canada had a little drier conditions, but things looked like we should expect an average fall flight for Blue-winged Teal.
As a reminder, many of the Blue-winged Teal we harvest during this early teal season are already coming in from other places across the continent. Wisconsin had a Blue-winged Teal that was marked with a band in early summer during one of our research studies, and was harvested the same year during the first week of September in Argentina! So, these birds are on the move already, and combine that with our own local teal, we are hopeful that the early teal season will see plenty of teal around for hunters.
As a reminder, early teal season starts at sunrise each day, rather than the normal half hour before sunrise for the rest of our migratory bird hunting seasons. This is a federal restriction aimed at ensuring that hunters have enough light to clearly identify teal species from other duck species. Please, if you are not sure of your target, do not pull the trigger, and please use safe firearm handling practices for your first time out in the field or marsh this year. I wish all of you the best of luck and hope to see some of you out and about this fall.