are present in other sections, especially in 
marshes along the upper tidal portions of the 
Patuxent, Elk, and Choptank Rivers. 
The largest breeding populations in the Upper 
Chesapeake region are in the Blackwater- 
Nanticoke section. There are small local 
breeding populations in the Lower Eastern 
Shore section and a few scattered pairs in 
the Coastal section. Elsewhere in the tide- 
water areas of the region, Blue-winged Teal 
are rare, local, andirregular during the hreed- 
ing season. 
Food Habits 
The gullet and gizzard food contents of 61 
Blue-winged Teal were examined. Data for 
53 of these are shown in tables 80-81. In 
addition to these, one half-grown juvenal was 
collected inthe brackish estuarine bay marshes 
of the Blackwater-Nanticoke section in June. 
Six birds were shot in wooded river bottom- 
lands along the Patuxent River during Septem- 
ber, and one bird was taken on an interior 
drawdown marsh impoundment of the Patuxent 
Wildlife Research Center during March. 
The seeds of Olney three-square and widg- 
eongrass were the major foods taken by the 
birds from the estuarine bay marshes (table 
80); seeds of saltmarsh bulrush and twigrush 
were consumed in considerable quantity. Ani- 
mal foods were especially important during 
March and June; the principal items were 
small gastropod mollusks (Littoridinops sp.), 
minute crustaceans (Ostracoda) and beetles 
(Coleoptera), The single half-grown juvenal 
collected in this habitat had fed entirely on 
small gastropods (Littoridinops sp.) and crus- 
taceans (Ostracoda), The principal foods con- 
sumed by the Blue-winged Tealfrom estuarine 
river marshes (table 81) were in the order 
of their importance: seeds of dotted smart- 
weed, Walter millet, dodder, softstem bulrush, 
tidemarsh waterhemp, halberdleaf tearthumb, 
and common burreed. 
All of the six Blue-winged Teal collected in 
the wooded bottomlands of the Patuxent River 
had consumed fairly large quantities of certain 
diminutive mollusks, including the gastropods 
Physa sp. and Gyraulus sp. and the pelecypod 
Pisidium atlanticum. The principal vegetable foods 
were the seeds of Berchtold pondweed, leafy 
pondweed, southern smartweed, and common 
burreed. Most of these seeds are not found in 
the bottomlands, which indicates that the birds 
had been feeding there for only a brief period. 
The Blue-winged Teal collected inthe draw- 
down marsh impoundment had fed almost en- 
tirely on the seeds of beakrush and seedbox, 
Harvest Areas of Birds Banded in Upper 
Chesapeake Region 
Data concerning harvest areas of Blue- 
winged Teal banded on the Blackwater National 
44 
Wildlife Refuge during the years 1949-56 came 
from 19 band-recoveries (table 82), Direct 
as well as indirect recoveries were used, 
because the hunting season in Maryland begins 
after practically all the Blue-winged Teal 
have departed. Only a very small winter 
resident population remains. Over half of the 
kill was in the West Indian-northeast South 
American areas, About one-fifth of the birds 
were taken in the eastern Great Lakes =~ St. 
Lawrence area, and one-fifth in the north- 
central States. The kill in Maryland was only 
5% of the total. 
SHOVELER 
Spatula clypeata (Linnaeus) 
Shovelers winter in small numbers incertain 
parts of the Upper Chesapeake region, and 
are fairly common transients in spring and 
fall. The fall migration usually is during the 
period of August 25 - September 5 to December 
1-10, with the peak between September 25 and 
November 10, The normal spring migration 
extends from March 1-10 to May 1-10, with 
the peak between March 15 and April 25, 
Habitats 
Transient Shovelers and, to a lesser extent, 
wintering Shovelers ordinarily are well dis- 
tributed over the fresh and brackish estuarine 
bay marshes of the Blackwater-Nanticoke 
section. They usually are most common in 
the still-water ponds that are subject to slight 
tidal fluctuations, although at times many also 
occur at the margins of the brackish bay 
marsh along the shores of Fishing Bay or the 
Nanticoke River. The Shoveler populations are 
much more localized in the salt estuarine 
bay marshes of the Lower Eastern Shore sec- 
tion and in the embayed salt marshes of the 
Coastal section. In these saltwater communi- 
ties, the Shovelers seem to prefer artificial 
impoundments that have been constructed along 
guts or creeks of the drainage systems. Shov- 
elers usually occur quite sparsely andirregu- 
larly in other waterfowl habitats within the 
Upper Chesapeake region. 
Biogeographic Sections 
Small wintering populations usually are 
present in the Blackwater-Nanticoke, Lower 
Eastern Shore, and Coastal sections. Winter-= 
ing records elsewhere in the region are 
considered casual. 
Shovelers often are fairly common tran- 
sients in the Blackwater-Nanticoke, Lower 
Eastern Shore, and Coastal sections during 
spring and fall, but ordinarily are rather rare 
in the other tidewater sections and in the 
coastal plain interior. 
