Teal can be tough to ID Click to return to Waterfowl Outfitters Unlimited
'Eclipse' plumage makes drakes look like hen bluewings

Sept. 9, 2007

By SHANNON TOMPKINS
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

New participants in the September teal season (and even many experienced waterfowlers) can be excused if they believe every teal they take during the brief hunting session is a hen.

After all, none of the blue-winged teal they drop during the 16-day, teal-only season that opens Sept. 15 will wear the colorful plumage — the slate-blue head with the white crescent, spotted chest and white flank patch — shown on drakes in most identification guides.

Instead, all of the teal will wear drab brown feathers on most of their bodies, appearing at first glance to be hen bluewings.

But some of the dun-color teal are drakes. They're just not wearing those bright feathers.

Bluewings — drake and hens — shed their breeding season feathers each summer, replacing them with muted plumage. This "eclipse" plumage serves as good camouflage, as the molting birds are unable to fly when replacing their flight feathers and can be vulnerable to predation.

Wings the key indicator

All bluewings passing through Texas over the next several weeks on their way to wintering areas farther south will wear the drab plumage found year-round on hen bluewings.

The exception is on their wings. And those wings are the key to most easily identifying drake from hen bluewings.

Drake bluewings, even in eclipse plumage, will sport a fairly broad patch of white on the tips of their greater wing covert feathers, the feathers trailing the little ducks' namesake powder-blue patch on the leading edge of the wing and ahead of the speculum on the trailing edge of the wing.

On hen bluewings, those greater covert feathers typically have only a trace of white.

This difference is nearly impossible to distinguish in the air. But because drake and hen bluewings count the same in the bag limit, differentiating hens from drake on the wing is not crucial.

But being able to ID the sex of bluewings when they are in hand can be useful or at least interesting to waterfowlers.

Bluewings' southern migration each autumn is generally staggered by sex and age. Adult drake bluewings typically are the first to move south, followed by adult hens that lost their broods or otherwise didn't nest.

Adult hens with their broods bring up the rear of the migration, typically moving into Texas in largest numbers during October.

Hunters can look at the composition of their bags — the number of adult drakes compared to hens and juveniles — and get an idea of the stage of the migration.

Drake bluewings will slowly replace that eclipse plumage with the bright, colorful breeding colors this autumn and into the winter.

Texas waterfowlers hoping to bag a beautifully feathered bluewing usually get their chance near the end of the regular duck season.

Typically, bluewings on their north-bound migration begin trickling back into Texas early in January. So duck hunters afield during those final couple of weeks of the season, particularly along the coast, stand a decent chance of encountering a drake bluewing in full colors.

A Texas duck hunter in the right place late in the season can pull off a neat teal "hat trick," taking drake bluewing, greenwing and cinnamon teal wearing full nuptial plumage.

Don't overdo the shot size

A good portion of duck hunters tend to make poor choices in their shotshell selection, unnecessarily handicapping themselves in the field and costing them money and birds.

This manifests itself most during teal season.

Teal are smallish ducks, and, if a hunter is doing it right, most of the shots taken at them are at relatively close range — certainly inside 30 yards.

Under those circumstances, shooting 3-inch or even those monstrous 3 1/2 -inch 12-gauge loads is, quite simply, excessive.

When hunting teal over decoys, 2 3/4 -inch 12-gauge loads are more than enough.

And forget the large shot sizes.

Duck hunters have been oversold the necessity to compensate for steel shot's ballistic inferiority to banned lead shot by upping shot size.

This is particularly true for shots inside about 35 yards.

Duck hunters using large shot are, in most situations, doing themselves and the ducks a disservice. And during teal season, anything larger than No. 4 shot is a mistake.

The larger the shot size, the fewer the pellets in a load.

The fewer the pellets in a load, the less dense the pattern.

The less dense the pattern, the less effective the load.

The less effective the load, the more birds are missed or crippled.

Any waterfowler who takes the time to pattern-test shotshell loads carrying large shot — 1s or 2s — will be surprised they ever killed a bird with it.

Finding the right ammo

The most effective 12 gauge loads for decoying teal — the loads throwing the densest, most deadly patterns — are 2 3/4 -inch rounds filled with No. 6, 7 or 7 1/2 shot. This makes sense if you consider there are almost 300 pellets in one ounce of No. 6 steel shot, about 125 in an ounce of No. 2 steel and fewer than 200 No. 4 pellets.

Major ammunition manufacturers produce 2 3/4 -inch 12 gauge shotshells carrying 11/8-ounce, 1-ounce or 7/8-ounce payloads of No. 6 or 7 steel shot.

At least one maker of heavier-than-lead, non-toxic shot — Hevi-Shot — makes a 2 3/4 -inch load carrying 1 1/4 -ounce of No. 6 or No. 7 1/2 shot.

Those small-shot loads — in steel or other non-toxic material — are devastating on teal inside 30 yards. And, truth is, they are great for "big" ducks at the same ranges.

But there is a problem with these loads: few sporting goods stores stock them.

That lack of ready availability of non-toxic loads in 2 3/4 -inch rounds holding small shot is unfortunate for local waterfowlers. Most will never know it's costing them birds and money.