DELAWARE WLDLIFE OLD SQUAW DIVER DUCKS

DELAWARE WILDLIFE

BY

JOSEPH PANKOWSKI, JR.

Old Squaw, aka Long Tailed, “Clangula Hyemais”, a species of

the diving duck family,, can be seen along Delaware's coast during the

winter months Old Squaws have a white head and neck with a grayish

cheek patch around the eye. Males are black and brown I the upper

parts with white underparts in summer, in winter they have more

white.. Females are brownish gray, and undersides are dark. Both sexes

have short bills and necks, male have long slender tails and long

central feathers.

They mate on the Artic tundras and nest in depressions , near

water, that are lined with down plucked from the breast of the hen.

The hen will lay five or six olive buff eggs which hatch in three to four

weeks and stay with the mother hen until winter migration sometime in

September.

Old Squaws are expert divers, the deepest of all waterfowl.

There are reports that these ducks have been found by net fishermen

caught in gill nets 180 feet below the waters surface.

The Old Squaw eat fish,, crustaceans, insects, and some grasses

and vegetable matter..

Abstract: Wilmington Morning News, Friday, December 6, 1968

Joseph Pankowski, Jr. writer for Delaware Wildlife.