Young Sheldrakes on the Margaree River 
One of the common sights to be enjoyed when fishing on 
northern rivers in summer is that of broods of young Sheldrake 
which go splashing off at the approach of the fisherman. 
They are so shy that in all the many times I have seen them 
I have never, until the past summer, been able to get a near 
view of the young birds. 
On the Margaree River in Cape Breton we saw them every 
day, generally nine or ten in a brood with the mother, but 
in two cases there were over twenty, though only one old 
bird accompanied them. One day while trout fishing I came 
to a broad reach where the stream was shoal and in the middle 
a great spruce tree had grounded in the spring floods, head 
down stream, with the broad mass of roots making a wall, 
around which the current had washed a deep hole. I had 
always found a good trout ready to rise here on other days, so 
I waded carefully and got a good fish at the first cast. Then 
I hooked and lost another and began to cast lower along the 
trunk of the tree, being now within twenty feet of the root. 
Something moved and I made out a mass of young ducks 
clustered on the trunk just out of water, and apparently 
paying no attention to me. Taking a step ahead I saw the 
mother bird nearer me, squatting crossways on the trunk 
with her neck stretched straight out, and with all her feathers 
compressed so that she appeared hardly more than half her 
real size. No crest could be seen and she looked as wooden 
as the dead branches about her. I kept on casting and waded 
as close as the depth of water would allow, and could almost 
have touched her with the tip of my rod, but she never moved. 
I expected every minute to see the whole flock burst into 
flight like a covey of quail, but except for the frozen attitude 
of the old bird, it was as if I had not been there. Meantime 
the young birds pecked at flies and moved about, one slipping 
into the water and climbing out over its neighbors so that 
the whole bunch had to readjust itsel/. I stayed within 
fifteen feet of them for ten minutes and then slowly waded 
down stream without disturbing them. 
45 
