Green-winged teal are small, attractive ducks that breed across northern latitudes of North America and winter across the central and southern latitudes. Here in Central Missouri, they are migrants and/or winter residents.
These hardy travelers favor shallow lakeshores, sloughs and wetlands, where they feed on a mix of seeds, aquatic plants and invertebrates; they may also forage in adjacent fields. The floodplain landscape at Eagle Bluffs thus provides ideal habitat for green-winged teal and a large number stop by during migrations; of these, a fair number often stay through the winter.
This year, however, an unusually large number of the teal are wintering at Eagle Bluffs and will likely stay as long as open shallows persist. I counted at least 750 this morning, far short of the refuge record but the most I have personally observed there (or anywhere else for that matter). Records may come and go but nature's spectacles stay with us!
