John K. Flores: Hunter harvests some rare birds

Houma resident Jake Pierron comes from a long line of duck hunters. Born and raised in Chauvin, Pierron still hunts the same blinds that his grandfather Junius “Token” Sevin and great-uncle Leeroy Sevin built and hunted back in the ’70s.
The Saturday before Christmas, Pierron and his cousin Brennan Sevin were hunting ducks on the property he manages. Pierron and his daughter, who was hunting with him, shot three teal early, where his cousin in another blind some 400 yards away, hadn’t fared as well.
With quite a few birds flying, Pierron called up his cousin to see if he wanted to come hunt with him and his daughter in their blind. So, Pierron drove over to Brennan’s blind and picked him up.
During the morning’s action, Pierron sent his retriever to pick up a couple of the birds. Just about the moment his dog got into his assigned place in the blind, two “big ducks” started to work. So, Jake and his daughter quickly got down and his dog dropped one of the birds next to the blind during the commotion.
Just before climbing into the blind, Pierron asked his cousin if he minded picking up the duck the dog dropped. And that’s when things really got exciting.
Brennan said, “Man! It’s got a band on it!”
In the exchange, Pierron initially thought his cousin was joking with him.
When his cousin insisted saying, “No! I’m telling you the truth,” is when he finally believed him.
However, this wasn’t just any band and when Pierron started examining it, it was severely worn. Holding the leg of the bird up in the sunlight to look at the information inscribed on the band, he was just barely able to make out the numbers 0995-27672. What’s more, upon reporting it to the U.S. Geological Survey Bird Banding Laboratory, that’s when things began to take another turn.
Pierron received a reply that said, “Warning! Potential problems were detected with this report: This bird or band is unusually old. Please recheck your data, correct it if needed, and include any important remarks in the comments field. IF NO CHANGES ARE NEEDED PRESS CONTINUE.”
The band numbers checked out and upon pressing continue, Pierron received a reply stating the species, the date banded, banding location, age, and sex. Only, not in the customary “Certificate of Appreciation” form with bander information that corresponds with the band number. Additionally, the file information was inaccurate.
Pierron’s blue winged teal was listed as being a female. From the beautiful iridescent dark blue head with its pure white crescent moon shaped cheek patch, there was no doubt it was a male in full mating plumage.
How could there be a mistake? Why would the unofficial information read female instead of male? And why didn’t the banding information come with an official certificate from the USGS Bird Banding Lab?
What really stood out was, if the bird was actually the bird banded, it was really old; maybe one of the oldest on record at 20 years and 3 months.
Pierron contacted me the day after killing the blue winged teal to see if I could help him sort it out. Lauren Walker, a troubleshooter for the Bird Banding Lab, was contacted to see if she could help. It took a couple of weeks and a follow up phone call to get a reply, but Walker was able to obtain the field notes from the banders.
The blue winged teal was captured by spotlight and banded near Amherst Point, Nova Scotia, Canada, Sept. 14, 2005. Walker went on to say it is not unusual for the sex to be mistaken on hatch year birds.
Walker corrected the data base with the bird’s sex and date harvested and issued Pierron a USGS Certificate.
In an email concerning Pierron’s drake blue winged teal, Walker said, “I have looked at all of our blue winged teal records and found 13 that would be older than this individual. These 13 birds include 9 males and 4 females so, if you break it down by sex, Jake’s bird would be the 10th oldest male blue winged teal we have documented in our database. The current blue winged longevity record is held by a male that was at least 23.25 years when it was harvested in 2005.”
In putting the age of Pierron’s bird into perspective, according to Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge Research Program Manager Paul Link, female blue winged teal have a first-year survival rate of 46-48%, and males only slightly higher.
If harvesting the 10th oldest male blue winged teal on record and number 14 overall wasn’t enough, this past weekend, two weeks to the day later, Pierron harvested another rare bird. A hybrid blue winged teal/cinnamon teal cross, out of the same blind he harvested the banded 10th oldest drake blue winged teal.
Pierron says the blind has been truly special. He says that when he was much younger while hunting with his grandfather, he shot a duck he couldn’t identify.
When he asked his grandfather what it was, he said, “A female old squaw.” Today this arctic visitor is known as a long-tailed duck. What’s more, it is considered rare and uncommon in Louisiana.
Pierron’s cultural lineage runs deep, and he likes to tell the story how his grandfather, known by his nickname “Token,” served in the Marine Corps during the Korean War.
During the war Token wrote and sent a letter back home saying how he’d like to eat some ducks. Back then Pierron says, the people, particularly his great-grandmother’s generation, only spoke Cajun French.
Pierron isn’t sure who interpreted the letter to his great-grandmother, but Token’s brothers went out and shot some ducks and she plucked and cooked them. Pierron says there was a cannery in one of the nearby towns where shrimp were canned, so, they took the cooked ducks to the cannery and afterwards shipped them to Korea, where Token ate them.
Pierron knows that his grandfather’s stories are part of his family’s heritage. Shooting the old squaw, the 10th oldest male blue winged teal on record, and hybrid blue winged teal/cinnamon teal out of the same blind his grandfather hunted, only adds to the lineage.
Pierron says both birds have since been taken to the taxidermist.
John Flores is the Morgan City Review’s outdoor writer. He can be contacted at gowiththeflo@cox.net.