"The Evening Campfire" from
The Herald, March 8, 2009
Duck migration in full
swing at Shenango
I visited Shenango Reservoir
last Wednesday with my friend, the waterfowl artist
Vince Pagliaroli. It was a cool, sunny day in early
March, the kind of prespring afternoon that lures folks
out of their dark winter lairs, even if it’s too chilly
to go without a hat and gloves.
We parked in the lot above the river and hiked down the
overlook trail toward the dam. The hardwood branches
above us were still bare of leaves, but the sky was full
of sunshine, and promising patches of pale green shoots
intermingled with the matted brown winter grass. It was
the kind of day that gives you hope: for better weather,
better prospects, better days in the outdoors.
“Look,” said Vince just then. “Bald eagles.”
I gazed upward and there they were, two majestic raptors
with white heads and white tailfeathers soaring
gloriously against the bright blue skies.
“Who’d have thought,” said Vince in admiration, “when we
were kids that we’d be seeing bald eagles some day,
right here just five minutes from home?”
We continued out onto the top of the dam, looked over to
the lake side and spotted four buffleheads — two drakes
in brilliant white plumage and two darker hens — a
hundred yards away and moving farther out. We hiked
quickly up the wooded lakeside trail to a point where
the deep brown waters were sheltered from the wind by
trees and hillsides and saw dozens more: buffleheads,
big-headed and colorful hooded mergansers and four
mallards. These were mostly diving ducks, and we watched
through binoculars as each bird disappeared under the
surface seeking gizzard shad and reappeared seconds
later.
“From the first of March through mid-April, you can see
migrating ducks come through this area on their way to
Canada,” said Vince. “We’re on the western edge of the
Atlantic Flyway. Pay attention to the wind if you want
to come out and see them. If it’s from the south, the
birds will be riding with that wind.”
I’m not much of a waterfowler, but Vince has spent a
lifetime hunting and studying ducks and geese across the
U.S. and Canada. He is also a talented waterfowl artist
and decoy carver whose works are displayed regionally
several times a year.
“The fall migration is good,” Vince told me, “but the
spring migration is the Super Bowl for Ducks Unlimited
and other conservation groups. Their handiwork is on
display by the thousands. Goldeneyes, pintails,
ring-necked ducks, wood ducks and many more. And they
come right through here near home. They follow these
rivers up like you and I drive on a highway.”
Later, back at the parking lot, I asked Vince, “So, what
have you been working on? What did you bring along to
show me?”
“A couple things,” he said and then retrieved from his
car two recent artistic renditions, a ruddy duck and a
redbreasted merganser, both sturdy enough to use on the
duck-hunting waters as decoys but also created in
exquisite living detail.
I shook my head in wonder.
“We writers work hard to try and tell a story,” I said,
“but what you artist guys do is magical. What you create
out of nothing is a miracle.”
Vince looked at me for a moment. “You’re an artist,
too,” he said. “You have the passion.”
That’s the best compliment I’ve received all year.
<<
back to columns |
