Teal-only season to be Sept. 15-30 Click to return to Waterfowl Outfitters Unlimited
July 11, 2007, 9:38PM

By SHANNON TOMPKINS
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

TTexas waterfowlers will see a 16-day teal-only hunting season from Sept. 15-30, thanks to this year's near-record estimated population of blue-winged teal.

The estimated breeding population index of blue-winged teal on the small ducks' main breeding grounds in the north-central United States and south-central prairie Canada was pegged at 6.7 million birds in a report issued Wednesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Federal waterfowl hunting frameworks allow Texas a 16-day teal-only season when the bluewing population index exceeds 4.7 million birds. If the bluewing population is 3.3 million to 4.6 million, current federal frameworks allow Texas a nine-day teal season.

This year, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission approved a proposal to set the teal season to run Sept. 15-30 if the bluewing population reached the 16-day threshold.

The estimate of 6.7 million bluewings is included in "Trends in Duck Breeding Populations, 1955-2007" released Wednesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The report provides population estimates of North America's 10 major duck species and is compiled from data collected by annual aerial surveys on the ducks' main nesting grounds each May and early June.

Over the 53-year history of the annual spring breeding population survey, only two years have produced bluewing population estimates higher than the 2007 numbers.

The bluewing breeding population was estimated to be 7.4 million birds in 2000 and 7.15 million in 1999.

This year's bluewing population estimate is 14 percent higher than the 5.9 million birds of 2006 and 48 percent above the long-term (1955-2006) average.

Overall, this year's breeding population of the 10 duck species covered in the annual was 41.2 million birds, up 14 percent from the 2006 index of 36.2 million and 24 percent above the 1955-2006 average.