The Chase

There has been a Long-tailed Duck or Oldsquaw (more on that later) at the ponds near Warm Springs. It was first reported on Sunday, and I though it’ll take off before I can drive the 2 hours. Then it was seen again on Monday, and once again, I said to myself, “It’ll fly the coop.” On Tuesday, it was still present, and I pondered, “I’m going!”.

I decided to left Bozeman at 6 in the morning and picked up Andrew Guttenberg for the chase. A storm had blown through the valley during the night and laid down about 3 inches of fresh snow. The roads were the usual slick and dangerous, and we took off slowly. The weather continued to spit snow occasionally as we crossed the Continental Divide and descended to the source of the Clark Fork River and the ponds that held the duck.

As we exited the interstate and turned onto the gravel road that runs along the south side of the pond, an all-white appearing duck was evident on the pond in the milky twilight. Then it dove, so we parked at a higher overlook, and there was the Long-tailed Duck and man, did it put on a show. It made long dive after long dive, and we watched it for about 1 hour. The light was very murky, so the images aren’t the greatest but what the hell.

Oh yeah, the excitement…as we were observing the duck, a loud crushing sound followed by scraping erupted from the slick highway. as we turned a van was sliding down the road, but only it was up side down. The driver was okay and no else was injured or delayed. What’s more exciting, the wreck or the Long-tailed Duck? C’mon…the duck hands down.

Now back to the name. Is it a Long-tailed Duck or an Oldsquaw? I know that it is politically incorrect, but I do prefer the old name. But the AOU changed the name not out of PC concerns, but due to the rest of the world referring to the bird as a Long-tailed Duck. So, I guess it’s a Long-tailed Duck and a Squawfish is now a Northern Pikeminnow…things changed and no use offending Native American folks.