Jim Belote of Conway went to the lake looking for egrets to photograph, but what he happened to spy was much more rare.
Belote, a biology and chemistry teacher at St. Joseph Catholic School in Conway, said he is a “fairly new” photographer and birder.
On March 6, when school was out for a snow day, he grabbed his camera and telephoto lens and headed for the Craig D. Campbell Lake Conway Reservoir in
Mayflower. He went to photograph the egrets, but there wasn’t much action, he said. However, he noticed pelicans were plentiful near the Arkansas 89 bridge.
“Out of the corner of my eye, I saw this duck floating; he was asleep out in the middle of Lake Conway,” Belote said. “All of a sudden, it raised up, spread its wings out, and its tail came up and curled all the way up in the air. I knew right then I’d never seen this duck — ever.”
If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck — and has a long tail — it’s a duck, but a rare one to see in Arkansas.
He took some photos and left to pick up his wife, Beverly, from work.
“I mentioned to my wife on the way home, ‘I’ve got some weird duck out there; I’m not sure what it was,’” he said.
Belote posted one of his photos to the Arkansas Birder Facebook page, then went about his business at home.
“About 10 minutes later, my wife said, ‘Whatever you put out there is blowing up,’” Belote said. “People were saying, ‘This is a rare duck; it belongs in the Arctic.’”
The duck was identified as a long-tailed duck, previously called an oldsquaw.
“They’re a sea duck; they’re supposed to be in the ocean,” Belote said.
But, definitely not in a lake in Arkansas.
According to the website seaducks.org, the long-tailed duck is a medium-sized sea duck, the only living member of its genus. They are “gregarious, forming large flocks in winter and during migration. They feed by diving for mollusks, crustaceans and some small fish. Although they usually feed close to the surface, they are capable of diving to depths of 200 feet.”
Yet, this one duck was floating in Lake Conway, eating fish and getting a lot of attention. Birders everywhere started grabbing their cameras and checklists and heading to Conway. Facebook posters wanted to know more.
“They wanted details so they could get out there and see it — ‘Where is this? What launch ramp? What time of the day?’” Belote spotted it just south of the Arkansas 89 bridge about 2:30 p.m. March 6.
Belote said he was told a crowd gathered on Saturday morning, the day after he posted his information on Facebook. He went to the location of the sighting later that day.
“It was really fun,” he said.
Belote said one man told him he drove from Fort Smith to see the duck.
“That has been the most heartwarming thing about this whole deal,” Belote said. “People mentioned my name on the birder page with thank-you messages; it was really touching.”
Luke Naylor of Conway, waterfowl program coordinator for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said sightings of the duck are not unheard of, but they’re not common, in Arkansas.
“This is the first one I remember specifically in Lake Conway since I’ve been living here (nine years). That doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened,” he said. “There’s a few sightings every year.”
Sightings of the long-tailed duck have been reported in past years at Lake Dardanelle, for example, Naylor said.
“I get reports almost every year of a hunter either shooting or harvesting a long-tailed duck on Lake Dardanelle,” he said. “This is the first one I’ve seen that’s a really nice adult male in full plumage.”
Unlike most ducks in their sexual maturity, Naylor said, “with these birds, there’s an in-between year where some males will be a little grimier looking, not as sharp colors.”
The excitement among birders and wildlife photographers is understandable, he said.
“They’re just so uncommon around here,” Naylor said. “A fair number winter in the Great Lakes, and they’re a far-north breeder.”
Dan Scheiman of Little Rock, staff Arkansas ornithologist for Audubon Arkansas, part of the National Audubon Society, agreed with Naylor.
“It’s seen not every year, and irregularly, and you never know when one will show up in Arkansas,” Scheiman said. “Last winter was a banner year for it, because the Great Lakes froze, and that drove a lot of those birds southward. There were multiple birds, multiple
locations. When it comes to rare birds, it’s very typical to have just one individual in an area.”
He has seen the ducks before, but many people haven’t.
“A lot of birders maintain what’s called a life list — all the birds you see in your life,” he said. “The first time someone sees a long-tailed duck, it’s their life long-tailed duck.”
Naylor said he heard that a frequent fisherman on the lake wondered what all the fuss was about and told birders the “cool-looking” duck had been hanging around for a couple of weeks.
The question is, how long will he stay?
Belote said the duck seems at home on the lake.
“He sleeps; then he paddles on over next to the shallow water [under] the bridge to get a fish, takes a nap. He seems pretty content,” Belote said, laughing. “I took my grandsons to look for [the duck] Saturday morning, and it was still there and put on quite a show for us — coming in close and diving.”
Naylor said there’s no way to tell how long the lone duck will stay.
“He’s obviously found a way to make a living there; he’s got a lot of resources there. They’re diving ducks and for quite awhile have held the record of depth of diving. There’s no challenge in Lake Conway,” Naylor said. “I wouldn’t expect him to become a year-round resident. I think he’d move on at some point, unless he has some sort of injury that’s unknown to us. With the birders on the scene, you’ll know his daily movements now.”
Scheiman said it’s always safe to assume “time is of the essence” with a rare bird.
“You never know with a rare bird — it may be a day; it may be months. Breeding season’s coming up — it will probably go back north before too long,” he said.
Belote is happy that he noticed the duck.
“It was such a chance sighting. I didn’t know what I was seeing. I just happened to look over there. If I hadn’t had my camera with me — if I hadn’t seen him stretch his tail — I wouldn’t have known,” Belote said.
This experience made a difference in his fledgling hobby.
Belote said last week that he got home and realized he’d taken more than 1,000 photos of the unusual duck.
“After the last [several] days, I’m going to be a birder,” he said.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.