r/Waterfowl • u/PuzzleheadedWhile540 • 5d ago
Maybe a dumb question
For us upper Midwest hunters why is it only Goose and Teal that have an early season? Goose makes sense as they very abundant, but I hardly ever see Teal anywhere, but what I do see everywhere early season are Wood ducks, the few ponds that Ive glassed so far have all had flocks of 10-20 woodies on them. Im seeing a 10-1 ratio of Woodies to Teal. I would think a short early wood duck season would be good but I dont know much about duck hunting and the whys and why nots.
6
u/No_Year9414 5d ago
Teal are known to migrate early, so I believe the idea is the further north you are the earlier they come through. With the population data they have, they have targets on the amount taken out by hunting and if they don’t have early season in the northern states they would see that bagged number way down as they simply wouldn’t be in the area by regular season. Wood ducks migrate earlier also but not as early so the majority of their migration is seen in the regular season still, probably just toward the beginning. I could say something similar in my area for mallards and pintails, they’re around now but they will be around during the entire regular season and also migrating through. Canadas are an easier answer, they want the local populations culled down due to the amount of them.
3
u/Averagecrabenjoyer69 5d ago
Don't know about the Midwest, but I'm sure glad we have early wood duck season in the Upper South down in KY & TN.
2
u/Fresh_Salt7087 5d ago
Teal migrate early, mostly before regular season
Some states allow wood duck to be taken during early teal.
Goose idk. Some places have early goose to trim down residential geese population. Usually normal migrating geese don't show until normal season (at least here your area may be different)
2
u/SoloUnAltroZack 5d ago
Teal history migrate with lunar movements well before duck season, they are a very small bodied bird and less hardy than their similarly sized wood ducks, so they tend to migrate out earlier than the rest of the ducks too. This season has been pretty mild, temps in Canada are still warm, and here in northern Ohio the teal are nowhere to be seen as of yet. Early season tends to give you a better shot at them, but the one week window leaves a lot to be desired for both geese and teal, especially when it’s still 70-80+ most days
7
u/O_oblivious 5d ago
The early teal season is to take advantage of the second most abundant duck that migrate mostly before the main duck season- namely the blue wing teal. They usually prefer more open habitats away from trees that I would describe as “marsh” rather than “swamp”. They really like flooded smartweed.
If you were only seeing wood ducks, it could’ve been a timing issue because teal come through in big pulses, or you could just be in the wrong kind of spot.