Teal Opener with the Kids

Three people I always enjoy sharing company with;
we all laughed often and with plenty of birds in the air,
it didn't take a camera to make us smile

While last week ended just as it began from a work perspective, fast and furious, it seems only appropriate that I start this morning's entry with a quick recap of a quiet evening in the marsh -- our first duck hunt of the 2017 season. Opening day of the 15-day teal season was yesterday, and while I opted to defer to the lease holders for the morning hunt, one of my best buddies and I took my two oldest kids out for an evening in #15 (the name for a blind on the West Marsh; an artifact of a numbering system I'm honestly still trying to figure out).

Our son enjoyed time in the blind (and John's company) last season, but this was a first for our daughter. We had plenty of food, drinks, and bug spray packed just in case things went quiet after what was reported to be a pretty active morning of shooting. But as it turned out, we had plenty to watch in the sky and on the water.

Teal season is unique for a lot of reasons. The weather is often warm -- if not downright hot, especially when in waders. Sunrises and sunsets are still pushed relatively early and late. The marsh is still green, and the bugs are still active. And by law, hunters can effectively only shoot two species of ducks in Ohio -- the blue-winged teal and the even more pint-sized green-winged teal. (As an aside, Canada geese are also open for an early season.)

Teal are among my favorite birds. Not only do they fly like fighter jets -- often screaming through the sky in tight, fast formations -- but they are absolutely beautiful both on the wing and on the water. They are extremely tasty, too! Whether I have a shotgun in-hand or not though, they are an adrenaline rush in feathered form. I just love seeing them.

A photo is one of the only ways
to slow down a blue-wing

As it played out, John and I (the only hunters shouldering guns) only had three chances at teal, and one was a solo blue-wing that buzzed the decoys about three feet above the water. I only had time for one trailing shot and John didn't even see the bugger! We ended up empty handed in terms of a harvest, humbled by rusty shooting. But we must have seen several hundred "big ducks" (e.g. mallards, wood ducks, pintails, widgeon, gadwall, etc.) in addition to a few flocks of geese fly directly or nearly directly overhead.

The kids were all smiles. In addition to the ducks and geese, they enjoyed watching thousands of swallows feeding on the bug bonanza, chattering kingfishers and Caspian terns, and maybe a dozen trumpeter swans, as they all flew and fed unknowingly past the blind.

The morning hunters had fair to good success throughout the holiday weekend. My phone was filled with excited texts and photos from the field by noon each day. The recurring themes: a few teal around, lots of big ducks (by some accounts, more than have been seen in this marsh in a long time at this point in the year), and genuine excitement for how the marsh is looking. "The table is set."

Teal season is seen as a bonus or warm-up to the "real" duck hunting season for many. To me, it is an experience all its own. But I have to say, it gets the juices flowing for all that a full transition from summer to fall to winter can bring. Few things are better than autumn in the marsh!