Texas early teal hunting season is open

Texas duck hunters are bracing for another warm and dry early teal season opener. The teal are doing likewise.
Current observations indicate good numbers of blue-winged teal still remain in the northern breeding grounds, but those birds are expected to begin moving this way as cool fronts start to develop and hunting seasons in those regions get under way.
New this season, Texas hunters can take up to six teal daily, an increase in the daily bag limit of two from previous seasons. The possession limits for all migratory game birds has also increased and is now three times the daily limit, which cannot be applied obviously before the third day of the season. For ducks, including teal during the early Sept. 14-29 season, the possession limit is 18.
For many Texas duck hunters, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Annual Public Hunting Permit (APH) Program allows economical access to quality hunting on the state’s wildlife management areas (WMA). With a $48 APH, available for purchase wherever hunting and fishing licenses are sold, hunters have regular access during the season to some of the state’s prime managed wetland habitat. The hunting is typically good, but as TPWD biologists are quick to point out, there are no guarantees when it comes to migrating ducks.
“I am hearing of teal showing up on the coastal prairie in good numbers one day only to be gone the next,” said TPWD Waterfowl Program Leader Kevin Kraai. “Some people are getting nervous.”
“I never get nervous about teal season,” saud Jim Sutherlin, TPWD’s Upper Coast Wetland Ecosystem Project Leader. “Our early bluewings are about a week or so late, possibly an effect of the late cool spring weather we have experienced.”
Mr. Sutherlin said blue-winged teal finally showed up on the Big Hill Unit of the Murphree WMA early last week. “We will have teal to shoot on Sept. 14, but teal numbers will likely improve on the Upper Coast as the season plays out.”
Similar reports have been coming from the middle coast.

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