September 3 rd , 2020 – Aerial Waterfowl Inventory Blog We’re back in the air again. Actually, we’ve been at it for a month now counting shorebirds, but we completed the 1 st teal flight of the year on Wednesday, September 2 nd . There was an abundance of blue-winged teal (Spatula discors) along both rivers for the first week of September. We estimated 45,240 blue-wings along the Illinois River Valley (IRV), coming in at 139% above the 10-yr average. The central Mississippi River also had good numbers of blue- wings totaling 9,910 birds, 127% above average for the first week of September. Blue-wing numbers in the IRV were actually quite staggering. The 45,000+ birds witnessed this week was the 9 th highest total in 72 years of surveys and will be the 5 th highest peak count of blue-winged teal since 1948. Hopefully we will enjoy a great opening day of teal season beginning Saturday, September 5 th . Be safe out there and enjoy the Labor Day weekend. For site specific information, please check out our webpage at www.bellrose.org. Stay tuned for more updates next week……. Photo 1. Blue-winged teal (Spatula discors) prefer the very shallow water and sloppy mud usually found along the perimeter of wetlands.