Migration Alert: Mixed Reports from Louisiana’s Nine-Day Early Teal Season

Louisiana’s nine-day early teal season came to a close on Sunday, September 28. For many, the last few days were a welcome relief for what began as a slow season with few birds. Typical opening day success was had by some, but the hunting slowed for many until a welcome cold front arrived to close out the season.

Robin Pati hunts in the Buras and Venice areas. “We did great opening day, but the hunting fell off quickly. From last Sunday through Thursday, we had no ducks. However, following some rain and lower temps from a late-week, minor front, you could walk across the teal Friday morning in Buras,” he says.

Pati and his hunting partners made the best of the last three days of the season. “Friday and Saturday we killed limits. On Sunday, we decided to wait out the early morning high tide and hunted midday until dark. We didn’t get full limits, but the group managed 24 birds,” Pati says. He explains that he did notice something different about the birds those final few days. “I can’t explain it, but they didn’t act like typical teal. Instead of flitting around and high-speed passes, the birds were gliding in.”

With no tropical weather so far, Pati says the marsh in his area is in the best condition he’s seen in years. With pintails and canvasbacks being their bread-and-butter birds during the regular season, Pati is optimistic that if the birds come down, they will have the feed to keep them. “The feed is great with lots of duck potato. It is in the best shape I’ve seen it in five to six years,” he adds.

Towards the western end of the coast, Steve Stroderd hunted the full season and also had highs and lows. “This teal season was a very interesting one from what I experienced and heard from others. There were some really good places in the fields that didn’t perform to their normal success, and there were some marshes that fell into that category as well. I hunted in the agricultural fields half the time and hunted in freshwater marsh the other half. The field I hunted started out hot, but by mid-week, the birds had become scarce. I was able to change gears and go to the marsh where I found a good number of birds,” Stroderd says.

Like Pati, Stroderd also noticed that the teal weren’t acting like typical teal. “One thing that I noticed this teal season was that the birds reacted differently to the call than they usually do. Blue-winged teal generally work pretty well to the call, but these birds acted very educated from day one,” he says. “There were some folks who claimed they saw new birds, but I saw similar numbers before and after the front. All in all, I had a couple of slow days, a couple of solid days, and the rest were decent days considering all the dismal reports.”

Rod Haydel with Haydel’s Game Calls saw his season end pretty much like it started, with mixed results. “The final Saturday was hit or miss depending on which blind was hunted. Some blinds saw good groups—ours not so much,” he says. “Sunday was more of the same. Most guys in our area agree that they lost birds a week before the season opened, and that overall, it was very poor compared to years past. Most would rather have cut limits than days. After Saturday’s hunt, some chose not to hunt.”

In the southeast, some hunters in the Biloxi Marsh Wildlife Management Area ended the season on a high note. “After struggling on opening weekend and considering not going, the last weekend ended much better than expected. Birds that were all but absent for the opener showed up on Friday and stayed through the weekend,” John Davidson reports. “The mornings were a bit cooler, and the birds seemed to come out of nowhere. The couple in our group that didn’t get their limit was not the birds’ fault.”

Louisiana’s duck hunters now turn their eyes to the upcoming regular season. The slow hurricane season and lack of any tropical activity thus far has the habitat in great shape except for some inland areas that could use more rainfall. If the birds show, the landscape should be in good condition to hold them.