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orget mallard. While we’re are at it, forget pintail, widgeon, and blue-winged teal; might as well throw wood duck, shoveler, and redhead on the forget pile, too, and toss in bluewing for good measure. These are all key species, but in terms of overall importance to Texas waterfowlers, all pail in comparison to the gadwall—yes, gadwall. Called “gray duck” by many hunters, this species has seen a renaissance in population growth and hunter interest like no other species over the last 25 years. Last season Texas hunters took around 160,000 gadwall compared to approximately 90,000 mallard, 80,000 widgeon, and 30,000 shoveler. Only green-winged teal have occasionally eclipsed gadwall, but in the long-term remain in second place. This season, with a population up 12 percent from 2008 and sitting 73 percent above the long-term, hunters should be seeing lots of gadwall. “Over the last couple of years, gadwall 26
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have made up about 40 percent of our overall harvest,” said Jeremy Bryan of Cast and Blast Outfitters. “They are a very important duck for many, many Texas hunters.” Bryan said that along the coast, the typical gadwall habitat consists of freshwater inlet ponds close to the marsh, where the birds can track back and forth between food sources. “Gaddies are awesome, starting off real high, working circles kind of like a mallard, and then they will disappear. Then they will reappear like magic and be in your face and in the decoys,” Bryan said. He prefers soft contentment and comeback calls blown with a bit of caution over the aggressive style preferred by some hunters: “The trick is to not get too loud and stay on them, as they are very responsive to calls. I have even called in gadwall with no decoys on several occasions. Right now, my favorite calls are the H.S. Bill Collector and the Duck Commander Gadwall Whistle.” While these ducks can be easy to dupe, they are much more stubborn in the breeding grounds of North and South Dakota, where they are one of the last species to nest.
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“Some ducks like mallards will already be well into nesting before the gadwalls begin. However, when they do start, they do it with gusto and they will re-nest,” said Dr. Scott Manley, biologist with Ducks Unlimited. Re-nesting is important because predators like skunk and red fox often destroy nests, and some species like pintail abandon nesting. Gadwall carry on, and that coupled with their favor for Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land and large, permanent wetland impoundments gives them an edge over other species. In dry years like 2008, when seasonal wetlands were few and far between, gadwall did decline from the previous wet year, but held at 56 percent over the long-term average. “The Dakotas are very important to gadwall and it is important we continue CRP and also the conservation easement program, which pays landowners a one-time fee to deed nesting grounds protection into their property,” Manley said. Since 1997, DU and its partners like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have purchased nearly 800,000 in easements in the PHOTOS BY GRADY ALLEN