Woodduck surprise

[Tom Flanigan]

I decided to give the grouse and my setter Jesse a break today and check on the ducks in the Great Swamp. The swamp is about 20 miles long and parts of it run through my town of Pawling, NY. It’s a wild and preserved area and is an important headwater area for New York City reservoirs. My favorite area is about ¾ of a mile hike down railroad tracks. I took my retriever and off we went for a day of fun.

There are still some open water areas not frozen over due to the flow of some of the streams and beaver ponds. Some mallards and black ducks winter over in the open waters of the swamp. Many were compacted in the open water areas and we flushed better than 100 ducks today. But the real shocker was the pair of wood ducks I flushed from one of the beaver ponds. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I have never seen a woodduck in that swamp past the third week of October. Yet the pair was here in February. I don’t believe they wintered in the swamp. I believe them to be very early returns from the South. The Great Swamp is a major nesting area for woodducks and this pair apparently returned extra early. I’ve never seen it before. The squeal of the hen as the pair flushed warmed my soul. It is my favorite wild sound. Hearing it was an uncommon treat for a February day. I’ve been walking on air since. Tomorrow will be another grouse day, but I am tempted to return to the swamp again with Clark my retriever. Who knows, maybe we can find another woodduck pair that don’t know it’s February.