Migration Alert: Early Cool Fronts and Improved Habitat Sets the Table for Central Flyway Teal Hunters

The first cool mornings of the season have arrived across northern portions of the Central Flyway, which has fall in the air and blue-winged teal on the move. The following is a look at habitat conditions in select states and what the experts believe hunters should expect for duck numbers during upcoming September teal seasons.

Based on this year’s Waterfowl Population Status Report, which was released earlier this week by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), total breeding duck numbers were similar to last year’s estimates. An estimated 4.4 million bluewings settled in the traditional survey area this spring, down slightly from the 4.6 million birds observed in 2024. In the Dakotas, prospects for breeding bluewings improved thanks to late summer rains.

“The spigot in parts of North Dakota and South Dakota turned on after these surveys were conducted, and it really hasn’t shut off since, even heading into September,” explains Rocco Murano, South Dakota’s chief waterfowl biologist. “I think there is good reason to believe that late-nesting species, like blue-winged teal, gadwall, and shovelers, had improved habitat conditions, and brood-rearing conditions were quite good. Those birds that nested here should have done really well in terms of production.”

Groups of adult male bluewings, which are the first to leave the breeding grounds, are beginning to stage on wetlands in the Dakotas, and some birds have already started the journey south. Reports of teal arriving in northwest Missouri began to appear with the first brief cool spell of the season. Hunters there are now eyeing the calendar for the start of the early teal season as bluewing numbers build on public areas and privately managed shallow-water habitats.

The first bluewings have also arrived in central and western Nebraska, where improved habitat conditions have officials hopeful for the upcoming waterfowl season.

“This has absolutely been a bounce-back year for us in terms of wetland conditions,” says Brad Krohn, project leader for the Rainwater Basin Waterfowl Management District. “Our water levels are the best they’ve been for a while in some areas.”

The USFWS, along with its partners the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and Ducks Unlimited, will soon begin pumping water on some of the Rainwater Basin’s shallow wetlands that remain dry. The newly flooded habitat will provide important feeding and resting areas for migrating teal and other waterfowl species as the fall migration kicks into gear.

“Overall, our conditions are good. We’re thankful for the precipitation that we’ve received,” Krohn says.

Both teal and hunters will also find improved wetland conditions in parts of Kansas where heavy summer rainfall helped fill wetlands to levels not seen in several years.

“In the past few years, we’ve had good growing seasons, but we haven’t received enough rainfall to create the surface water needed to attract migrating waterfowl,” says Tom Bidrowski, waterfowl project leader with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. “This year has been different. We’ve gotten some late rains, timely rains, that have created good surface water in areas that haven’t had it in maybe a decade or so.”

Bidrowski notes that the state saw a “good push” of bluewings in August, but the trickle of birds has slowed in recent days. The next round of cool temperatures scheduled to arrive in the Dakotas this week should be enough to deliver another round of migrating birds.

“Our teal opener is a little later this year, so I think we should be at or close to peak numbers when the season opens. With the water we have and the good vegetation production out there, hunters should have good opportunities later this month,” Bidrowski says.