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Show IK.M - '4 TRAIL Cliff Fretwell THE RAMPANT REDHEAD Over the years naturalists and sportsmen have developed chronic chron-ic high blood pressure worrying about the redhead duck. According Accord-ing to waterfowl census figures the bird has never been present anywhere in abundance, consequently conse-quently stringent regulations have been applied to protect this popular American game fowl. But with all the effort expended to curtail the hunting of the redhead, red-head, naturalists and sportsmen still express concern over his future for no general increase in redhead numbers has been recorded. re-corded. Unfortunately waterfowl water-fowl counts fail to take into consideration con-sideration the life habits of birds, and all too often particular traits found only in wild animals and birds have an unfailing habit of upsetting the best laid plans of men. There's nothing strange about the redhead duck; he's a husky little fellow with a bright red head, closely resembling the great canvasback for whom he is frequently mistaken. The red-. red-. head shows little fear of man and readily decoys into a hunting hunt-ing stand. His favorite nesting spots are in the. marshes of Utah, and from the migration records maintained at the Bear River Wildlife Refuge in Box Elder county comes the strange story of the redhead, an account which may well show why so often he appears on the debit side of the ledger in the annual winter waterfowl census. To understand the unusual history his-tory of the redhead duck one must be familiar with the facts and theory of bird migration. It has been long established that birds travel the length of the continent twice each year, once in the spring to their nesting grounds in the north and again in the autumn when they seek out the milder climates of the south country. On the basis of this great continental movement has come the theory, a theory now bordering on fact, that the continent is divided into four major flyways; the Pacific, the Central, the Mississippi and the Atlantic, and that birds raised within the boundries of one fly-way fly-way spend their lives within that flyway, followng the established routes in the annual spring and fall flights. On the wall at the Bear River Refuge hangs an enormous map of North America and dotting the map are pins each with a different dif-ferent colored head to represent the various species of ducks. The map is a banding record in itself it-self showing where birds banded at the Bear River Refuge were later picked up. The pins are stuck all over the North American Ameri-can continent, but the stand-out feature of the map is the series of red pins denoting the banding returns from the redhead duck. Those little red pins have come close to blasting the four major . ftyway theory into smitherens. For instead of following a definite defi-nite flway in his fall migrations out of the Bear River, the redhead red-head fans out like the spokes in a wagon wheel, moving in every direction of the compass. He flies from Utah to Chespeake Bay; into the Canadian provinces; to the shores of the Great Lakes; down into Alabama and Mississippi, Mississ-ippi, along the Pacific coast, into the Ohio river valley and across the border into Mexico. A strange thing for a duck that's supposed to spend his life between be-tween the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coast. And mind you when the redhead migrates out of Utah he isn't flying toward his nesting grounds, but away from them and often to the coldest cold-est parts of the continent to spend the winter. Redhead Migrations From The Bear River Refuge, Utah V, JM, if ' ' ' turn UHflH ' "I V V ) s ,.LL,y., I ,. V V The eccentric migration habits of the redhead have done much to limit his numbers. In the Great Lakes region during zero weather when all the open water becomes choked with ice, redhead red-head ducks that have chosen to migrate into that area for the winter have been found in considerable con-siderable numbers dead of starvation. star-vation. Yet autumn after autumn hundreds of them continue to make their way from Utah marshes directly to the Great Lakes region. In a number of instances they choose to stay in Utah, regardless of the weather or the condition of their feeding grounds. But to tag the redhead as a regular wintering guest in any locality is to place entirely too much dependence upon his e.ratic nature. One instance is cited of his almost al-most complete disappearance from the Mississippi Valley during dur-ing the winter months, a situation situa-tion which brought a loud moan from sportsmen. Yet several weeks later a report came into New Orleans from a sea captain that he had observed a great raft of birds several miles out in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast. An immediate air reconnaissance recon-naissance showed the raft of mysterious sea fowl to be redhead red-head ducks, presumably the I same ones that had vanished from the Mississippi Valley. So naturalists and sportsmen still nurse their high blood pressure pres-sure and enact legislation to protect pro-tect the redhead duck. After all there is little else that can be done at the moment. For in spite of the boundries beyond which migratory birds should not go, the rampant redhead goes where-ever where-ever he pleases. He is no respecter respec-ter of imaginary lines, neither does he consider the usual bird flight habits. Being defiant of both only regulated hunting can grant him protection and this is meager to say the least. |