Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

It may feel like summer, but fall waterfowl season is here.

17— The first season that we have for waterfowl begins with our early seasons. Which include all species of teal, and as of the last couple years, in the eastern tier of the state of Texas, we have an early goose season for Canada Geese only that coincides with our early teal season.

Kevin Kraai is the waterfowl program leader at Texas Parks and Wildlife.

34— We are going to have the most liberal season, which is 16 days; teal is doing very well nationally, so we will be having the most liberal season we can have. Can you explain to our listeners how that’s decided. Yes. We have a harvest strategy in place that depicts the season lengths on teal. And basically, by looking at population estimates from the breeding ground surveys – we can determine whether we’re going to have a liberal, a base, or a closed season. And, basically any number of blue-winged teal above 4.7 million will have a 16-day season. And as of right now, we’re far above 4.7 million.

Early Teal season is September 14 – 29, with a six bird daily bag limit – up from 4. Tomorrow: How to get the most out the waterfowl season.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish restoration program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.