The Northern pintail, commonly referred to as pintail, has a body-length of 20-29 inches and averages 1.9-2.3-pounds. Drakes are also called “sprigs.” Pintail are among the most beautifully marked of all the ducks.

A pintail male in breeding plumage has a brown head, white neck and breast, and a gray back and sides. Females are grayish brown and are typically the most mis-identified duck of all the ducks harvested in the central flyway of the United States. Typically, novice birders and hunters think pintail hens are gadwall. The speculum is metallic greenish-brown with a white rear border. But far more noticeable in flight is the male’s long, slender, pointed tail. Pintails are extremely graceful and fast fliers, fond of zig-zagging from great heights before leveling off to land. Voice: the drake has a flute-like whistle, the hen a soft quack.

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Gadwall are 19-23 inches inches in length and average 1.8-2.2 pounds in weight. Sometimes referred to as “gray ducks.” Male gadwall in breeding plumage have brown heads, gray bodies and black tails. The female is similar, but more brown in color. The legs are yellow. This is the only puddle duck with white in its speculum. The drake whistles and sounds a kack-kock; the hen quacks like a mallard, but more rapidly and higher pitched. (more…)

Puddle ducks, also called dabbling ducks, are the largest and most widespread group of waterfowl in the world! They include the wild ducks most familiar to people. The two major duck groups, puddle and diving ducks, differ in several ways.

Divers inhabit large deep lakes and rivers, and coastal bays and inlets; puddle ducks tend to stick to the shallows of lakes, rivers and freshwater marshes, although they frequent saltwater, especially during migration. Diving ducks are, as their name implies, adept at diving and obtain most of their food this way. Puddle ducks, such as mallards and gadwall, prefer to feed on the surface or close to it; often they stretch their heads underwater, feeding upended with their tails in the air. As a group, they are not accomplished divers, but adults dive occasionally and ducklings do so frequently. (more…)

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The American black duck is also called “black mallard” or “red leg.” Plumage is a dark, mottled brown with white underwings and a violet-blue speculum. It’s length is 21-26 inches and its average weight is anywhere from 2.4-2.8 pounds. When visibility is good, the contrast between the light-brown head and the brown-black body is noticeable. This is our only puddle duck in which the plumages of both sexes are almost identical; the drake in nuptial plumage has a bright yellow bill, contrasting with the female’s olive-green bill. The voice of the hen is a loud quack; of the drake, a lower-pitched kwek-kwek.

Black ducks eat a variety of vegetable foods, including eelgrass, widgeon grass, and the seeds of sedges, bulrushes, wild rice, pondweeds, smartweeds and millets. On land they feed on acorns and waste corn, willingly flying up to 25 miles to a reliable source of the latter. Animal foods, more important in winter, include periwinkles, mussels, and snails. (more…)

The New York Times published an interesting article yesterday regarding the impacts of global warming on hunting, particularly duck hunting. The majority of the article addressed the challenges state and federal wildlife officials face in managing wildlife populations, wildlife habitat, and season dates as weather and waterfowl migration patterns change.

This should ring home with the many hunters this year that have been impacted by warm, dry seasons. White-tailed deer hunters have felt the impact of a warm fall and late rutting activity. And even along the coast, waterfowl hunters have adapted to changing migration times. (more…)

Songbirds and other wildlife species thrive in a variety of habitats. Therefore, it is desirable to provide as many different types of habitat as possible though manipulation of the your current plant communities. Bulldozing, prescribed burning, mowing, disking, and hand cutting of woody vegetation to “set back” the successional stage will allow for a variety of diverse habitats for early to mid-successional species.

A well-managed diverse native habitat is the key to wildlife management. These habitat requirements should be accomplished through cedar clearing and half-cutting trees and shrubs. Increasing natural foods, such as native grass seed for seed eating birds or insects that live in those habitats for insect eating birds, will help increase songbird populations. (more…)

Environmental Defense, the Central Texas Cattlemen’s Association and the U.S. Army at Fort Hood share a common desire: They want to see the federally endangered black-capped vireo (Vireo atricapilla) recover within the next decade. And these unlikely partners aren’t just hoping the bird recovers: they’re working together on the ground to make it happen.

Recovery of an endangered species is fundamental to Environmental Defense’s mission, but why would a Cattlemen’s Association and the Army care about the well-being of a 4.5 inch-long songbird? The answer is that they expect that the vireo’s recovery will ease Endangered Species Act regulatory liability and land-use restrictions. As an additional bonus, restoration and maintenance of vireo habitat have proven compatible with livestock and military training activities. (more…)

The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department site formerly known as Peach Point Wildlife Management area near Freeport, Texas, will be formally rededicated on Friday, October 12 as the “Justin Hurst Wildlife Management Area”, in recognition of the former game warden and wildlife biologist who was killed the line of duty earlier in 2007. A team of employees in the Wildlife and Law Enforcement Divisions, with support from several outside partner groups, is planning and organizing the dedication. (more…)