Oldsquaw - a Sea Duck Lost at Buckeye Lake

Opening day of duck season on Buckeye Lake (Ohio) was pretty good. Of course I did secure the "Ace" spot on the lake, or at least my favorite spot! In order to get that spot, my yellow lab, Gunner, and I had to sleep in my 18' Alumacraft on the lake. Yep, that's right. We put our boat in the evening before and motored to our spot, deposited the decoys, put the Avery quick set up and hit the sack. I did cover the boat with a tarp and turned on my new propane heater. Oh, did I mention we had a blow up mattress? We were cozy! The sun came up and the shooting started. We ended the day with eleven ducks and a goose. We bagged five species, mostly mallards.

The next week I volunteered to secure the prime spot again. This time I got up at 2:30 and launched at 3:30 AM. As I feared someone was already there! Darn. I had to settle for spot B, but with the wind shift out of the north, spot B was a good choice. Spot B is a point that we call "West Point". The report was that there were divers on the lake. That made a point very appealing. We were blasted with a cold snap and there was a light early snow fall. I set out a nice spread of Herter's mallards, geese, divers, and four mojos. My friends, Matt and Randy, showed up later with more blocks and 3 more flappers. Our spread exceeded 100 fakes. It was quite impressive.

We had a great hunt! We dropped 13 birds. I will not mention how many misses! There was quite a collection of feathery participants; ring necks, ruddy, buffle head, canvasback, blue bills and green wing teal and one gadwall! Some of these ducks seldom visit the shallow water of "Buckeye Ocean". It was quite a treat, and Gunner had a ball!

Gunner's share of the spoils.

The next week Randy volunteered to secure a spot for the group. He had first pick at 3:30 AM.  The duck forecast was not promising. Despite the poor duck report, my brother elected to drive two hours to join us before sunrise. The wind was wrong and the ducks were few, but little did we know how blessed we were about to become. A beautiful drake mallard cupped up and "parachuted" straight into the spread at first light. His majesty's arrival was announced by the report of the Randy's Benelli SBE as he joined the poor imitations of his likeness. Later, my brother, Brian, and I were schooled by a passing diver which may very well have been the first duck to exceed the speed of sound! Brian and Randy redeemed our pride by doubling up on a pair of birds and Gunner was quite grateful! It was an hour before we saw another waterfowl other than a loon that landed 200 yards out. The loon serenaded us with his "north woods" song.

Suddenly out of nowhere Brian and I heard the bang from the shotguns of Matt and Randy. I looked up to see a duck dive at the edge of the decoys. I asked Brian, "Where did that come from?" As luck would have it, the wind shifted and we were not tied up! Oops! The boat was sailing through the decoys. I decided that we may as well go get that bird while we're out here. I had just pulled the dog ladder in when the bird popped up again. Brian covered it with #2 steel. I started the 60 HP Merc and motored my way to the edge of the spread. When I looked up to see where the bird was, I couldn't believe my eyes! It was an Oldsquaw! I saw one once 37 years ago on Lake Erie, but wow! What was that bird doing here! How Beautiful! When my brother reached down to get it I said, "Be careful! That's an Oldsquaw! That's a trophy!" I took 8 pictures of it before I gave it to Matt and Randy! What a day! I don't know how that sea duck got this far inland, but he sure made us excited!