The Last Day of Teal Season

Teal season opened in our area on September 14th and ended on September 29th.  A teal is a small, freshwater duck that in my opinion, is one of the best eating ducks there is.  The season only lasts for 16 days and the limit is 6 teal per person per day.  Unfortunately, due to lack of rain, our duck pond that me and my buddy normally hunt in was bone dry.  We had to wait until we got rain (free water!) before we could make the hunt.  Fortunately, the rain came and on the very last day of the season, we were able to get out there in the duck blind to hunt for some teal.

Benjamin and I awoke at 5:45 am and put on our camouflage clothes, grabbed two 12 gauge shotguns and made the 30 minute trip to Oberlin where our family farm and duck pond is located.  We were to meet my buddy, Gary and his daughter, Danielle, for the hunt at 6:30 am.  Gary and I grew up together and have been friends for a long time.  We arrived and walked along the gully in the dark and positioned ourselves in the duck blind.  The blind is nothing fancy.  It is merely some tall grass directly in front of the bottom cut of a flooded rice field.  We brought 5 gallon buckets that we turned over and sat on.

One of my favorite parts of the hunt is the sunrise.  We get to sit on our buckets and watch as God gets out his paint brush and chooses amazing colors from His palette to paint a dazzling portrait across the immense canvas of the Eastern sky.

Sunrise Painted by God

We settled down and watched the sky for teal to begin flying.  You can't shoot before daylight so you have to know exactly when sunrise is.  On September 29th, it occurred at 7:00 am.  Right around that time, birds started flying.  Now, here's the tricky part.  You have to really be on your toes, because the only season that is open is teal season.  If you shoot any other kind of duck and Mr. Green Jeans (Department of Wildlife & Fisheries) will write you a ticket.  So you have to know by sight and by flight which duck is which.

Two flew by...  Two wood ducks, that is.  Can't shoot those...  yet.  Gotta wait for big duck season for those.

A pair of wood ducks

Then we spotted a flock flying in and Gary began calling them on his duck call.  As they got closer, yep, more wood ducks.  They lit in the pond, seemingly knowing they were off-limits.  I could have reached over and tapped on their shoulder they were so close.  Let's see them try that stunt when 'big duck' season opens!

A bigger flock of wood ducks coming to light in the pond

Then teal started whizzing by.  They fly so fast you hear the whir of their wings before you see them.  And when you finally see them, often times it is too late to get a shot it.  One bunch circled back and when they did, both Gary and I shot and dropped two birds (in an uncharacteristic demonstration of efficient shooting)!  I made a mental note of where I saw the teal hit the ground.  We waited until after 8 am, but the teal flights were few and far between and we didn't get another good opportunity to shoot, so we unloaded our guns and went to search for our ducks.

We found one almost immediately - a blue-winged hen.  We searched and searched for the other, but never could find it.  I hate to lose a bird!  Judging where I saw it fall, it went into the gully.  As we looked down in the gully there was a beaver dam right below us.  Can you see it in the picture below?  It has the water backed up about a foot higher than the lower level.  Those are some industrious little boogers weaving sticks and mud together to completely dam up the gully. 

Beaver dam

Once we walked back to the truck, I had Danielle, Gary, and Benjamin pose for the "look what we killed" picture.  If we were only eating what we killed on this morning, the four of us would be very hungry.  If you look behind the hunters, you can see Gary's 1980-something truck that he named, "The Black Knight."  The Black Knight is still running after many years and many miles and still doesn't burn a drop of oil, a testimony of what taking care of something will do.

Danielle, Gary & Benjamin

We drove back to Jennings and Benjamin posed with his duck.

Benjamin and his blue-winged teal

This photograph shows why it is called a blue-winged teal:

"Blue-winged"

These birds are small and I generally just 'breast' them.  I pull back the feathers right above the breast and make a small slit.  Then I step on the neck and tail, put my fingers into either side of the breast and pull.  The entire breast will pull out clean, leaving the guts, most of the feathers, head, and feet behind.

I pull the remaining feathers off the breast and put the teal in the freezer.  She'll make a wonderful addition to a gumbo when the weather gets a little colder.

For the compost pile

Finally, Benjamin & I pose for a Father/Son hunting photograph.  I'm using a Browning 12 gauge pump and Benjamin is holding a Remington Model 1100 12 gauge automatic shotgun.

Father & Son

And another:

Father & Son with their 12 gauge shotgun

We didn't get our limit of ducks on this hunt.  We did kill more than our limit of mosquitoes, though.  Man, they were bad!!  Big duck season opens in November.  Hopefully we'll add to our duck inventory in the freezer.  One lonely teal makes for a mighty skinny gumbo!