December Duck

The more moderate temperatures of recent years have provided us with many strange wildlife encounters well out of the regular accepted time span for such happenings.  One of the most unusual occasions for me occurred on December 5, 2005 almost 3 years ago. In the half-light of a ten o’clock morning it was such an extra-ordinary sight that it prompted me to stop my truck and record the date and time in the little notebook that I carry with me for such occasions.

The skies were clear, the temperature hovering around –15C (5F). There was a light mist coming off Horse Creek that was being blown about by a moderate north wind.  As I turned onto the highway from the Horse Creek road, a solitary mallard duck took off from the ditch to my left.

Head thrust out, neck stretched and wings beating valiantly through the cold mist the bird managed to maintain flight beside me for about 200 yards. I glanced down at my speedometer and clocked it at about 20km per hour before it disappeared in the mist behind me.

“Well”, I thought to myself. “At least he’s heading in the right direction.”

The December duck was the familiar green-necked mallard drake. They normally travel in pairs but this guy was all by himself. Lake Laberge is the middle ground for waterfowl using the Pacific flyway along the coast as well as the Central flyway into Alberta. We don’t normally expect to see them after the end of October. I would like to think that these late fliers use the Pacific coast and the Alaska Panhandle for the winter as it is closer and seems to make more sense, at least to me. I thought of my December Duck often in the days following our encounter. Luckily the weather moderated somewhat over the next few days and I hope he managed to find his way south far enough to avoid becoming a casualty of our cold winter.