How weather impacts teal ducks

Wetlands like Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area, located in southern Boone County, look pretty empty in terms of waterfowl. In the next several days to weeks, that'll be changing as blue-wing teal and green-wing teal look to migrate through the area.

Each early fall, wetlands in Mid-Missouri will be filled with these small species of ducks passing through. Both blue-wing and many green-wing teal migrate well ahead of most duck species. This is in part due to the species' liking of warmer weather.

Tony Vandemore is an owner and guide at Habitat Flats, which is a guide service with two locations across northwestern portions of Central Missouri, and has spent most of his life building habitat and hunting these waterfowl, "With teal you can hunt them in a variety of habitats." Tony highlights what springs these tiny aerialist to pass south each year, "It gets down in the 40s, 50s at night up north and you'll see him on the move." This year, however, a decline in both species populations has led to a worry about the future of this early-season migrator.

Just yesterday, the US Fish and Wildlife Service released the waterfall population report. Numbers shown in this chart are in millions. The negative highlight could be shown by the decrease in populations from last year and, more importantly, the decline in the long-term average for blue-wing teal. This has led to a shortened season. Tony Vandemore, "There is a decrease in population this year. It's cut down to a 9-day season, but to me it looked like they had, had quite a bit of water, some of it was a little bit later, but it should have helped re-nesting efforts."

Much of last spring saw drought across northwestern portions of the US and breeding grounds in Canada, leading to a population decrease due to the need for wetlands to hold successful breeding conditions. However, like Tony mentioned, late spring rain helped resolve some of these issues to keep the population from dropping even further.

Tony Vandemore recalls, "When I was younger, it seemed like earlier in the season was better and the last few years, the later in the season that we've gotten, the later in the season the more birds have came, and I think that's due to the late hatches, re-nesting efforts."

Due in part to a lot of that drought we saw across the Northwest, the decrease in the population for the blue-winged teal has impacted this upcoming season, and it will be shorter than previous.

It's important to go to https://mdc.mo.gov/hunting-trapping/seasons/teal-hunting to find out more about season changes.

To find out more information about Habitat Flats, go to https://www.habitatflats.com/