While teal typically fly fairly slow it is their "formation flying", and aerobatics in such, that lend partly to their reputation as fast flyers. Thirty mph is considered the normal flight speed for them, however I once witnessed a huge wad of them doing much, much more than that. I was hunting a flooded field of standing corn, along the L 'Anguille River in eastern AR. A bitter cold front was bearing it's way south, bringing with it tens of thousands of mallards and other ducks. It was about 4:30 pm, and we had mallards constantly working the corn, offering good shooting. Suddenly, I heard a sound I didn't quite recognize, and tried to identify the source. I realized it was high above and looked up to see the biggest drove of teal I've ever seen in a hard dive. They had been migrating at a high altitude, for teal, and spotted the corn. There was somewhere between 150 and 200 in that bunch, as near as we could estimate. The sound of the wings cutting the air all at once was enthralling. I have no idea what top speed they reached in that dive, but they were smokin' it, I promise you.
P.S. It is mergansers that reportedly hold the speed record for ducks. I once read that one was clocked ahead of an airplane at 100 mph.
SRH
Last edited by Stan; 02/21/20 08:50 AM.
