On this cool, foggy morning at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area, the parking lots were filled with pickups and decoys bobbed in the pools; in some areas, camouflaged hunters patiently gathered near the decoys while intermittent shot-gun blasts echoed across the floodplain. It is teal season in Missouri.
Despite all the hunting activity, very few ducks were observed (I counted 17 blue-winged teal during a two-hour visit); indeed, overall bird activity was rather limited with the exception of great egrets and swallows. A lone bald eagle (observed by my friend) was the only raptor encountered and songbirds were relatively quiet and secluded. In all, we saw 23 avian species.
After a long, hot summer, it was nice to enjoy the cool morning air and to experience the earliest stage of the autumn waterfowl migration. Blue-winged teal are the first migrant ducks to arrive each year (a full month ahead of their cohorts) and the first to face a determined army of human hunters. This morning, however, there were far more decoys than ducks.
