Blue-winged Teal Numbers High before Start of the Special Season in Louisiana
By Don Shoopman
The Daily Iberian
The estimated number of blue-winged teal in southwest Louisiana before the Sept. 12 start of the special teal season was approximately 45 percent higher than the 10-year average of 139,000 for the same period in September.
Larry Reynolds, Louisiana’s veteran waterfowl study leader, and his staff conducted an aerial waterfowl population survey in the Coastal Zone on Sept. 8-9. They counted an estimated 202,000 blue-winged teal in southwest Louisiana, the vast majority of them in agricultural fields due to the recent passage of Hurricane Laura.