It isn't pear-shaped, it isn't yellow and orange, and it doesn't taste like chicken.
A real mud hen, that is, an American coot.
In fact a real mud hen looks about as similar to the Toledo Mud Hens' caricature mascot as a coffee table does to a cow. At least most coffee tables and cows have a leg on each corner.
Muddy the Mud Hen more closely resembles the mutant Easter Chick That Ate Chicago in a Grade B sci-fi flick.
Just kidding around, sports fans, so don't go south on this.
Speaking of going south, real mud hens do - for the winter. “They're a very common migrant,” said Mark Shieldcastle, a biologist at the state's Crane Creek Wildlife Research Station in Ottawa County. Mud hens spend their winters in the southern United States, which means they are smart enough to get out of the cold, slushy, dingy Toledo winter.
On the other hand, the mud hen does little to boost its lowly status as an unremarkable, clumsy commoner of the marsh with its nondescript plumage: gray/black head and neck, short white bill, slate-gray body. As waterfowl go, they are not very large - about 15 inches long, 24-inch wingspan, 11/2 pounds.
Nor does a mud hen engender any respect when it swims or walks, pumping its small head back and forth in a jerk-neck, chickenlike motion. In taking flight, it runs across the water, wings wildly aflap, as if frantic about maybe not getting airborne.
Its voice, if you care to listen, is described as “a variety of short, clucking notes, most with a hollow, trumpeting quality and coarse, rattling undertone.” Alternately, its “song” is described as “grunts, quacks and hoarse chatters of keyik and krrk! Or krek! Not to mention a drawling k-yew-r and laughing wah wahk or kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk.”
A mud hen feeds by immersing its head and neck in shallow water, body and tail tipped up, grubbing aquatic plants. It also may dive as deep as 25 feet to feed. A mud hen also will eat insects, frogs, snails and small fish. What, no hot dogs and beer?
Mud hens are far more common than the proverbially rare hen's teeth, and they do nest in marshes of northwest Ohio, especially along western Lake Erie.
In fact, in 1896, fans of the then-Toledo Swamp Angels, so-named because of the swamps around their Bay View Park playing field, made constant note of the wild coots, or mud hens, flying around the ballpark. So on July 16, 1896, the team name officially was changed to Mud Hens.
Mud hens are classified as migratory waterfowl and are distantly related to ducks. Their cousins are common moorhens or purple gallinules.
They can be hunted during the waterfowl season in the fall. But don't count on a gunner taking a potshot at one unless by mistake.
Like the man said, they don't taste like chicken.
The Sandusky currently is loaded with fish, and fishermen, said Bernie Whitt at Anglers Supply in Fremont. “There are more walleye in the river than I've ever seen,” he said.
As current rain runoff recedes and the river clears, fishing should continue to improve, and Whitt expects that the first fish of the white bass run may be in-stream as soon as next week. The white bass run in the Sandusky usually is ahead of the Maumee's run.
On the Maumee, the walleye catching has been fair to excellent at high-water locations, such as Perrysburg's Orleans Park, the foot of White Street in Maumee, and the nearby towpath just upstream on that side.
The Maumee rose three feet yesterday with the Monday rain, but was receding and clearing. It should be in decent shape for weekend angling. Water temperature remains in the ideal range at 46 degrees, according to Maumee Valley Bait and Tackle.
A good number of 10 to 12-pound fish have been measured at the shop, where the week's current big-fish leader is a 13-pound, 12-ounce female taken by Fred Gross of Columbia City, Ind.
On western Lake Erie, vertical jigging with hair jigs tipped with minnows continues to be the ticket. Purple/blue remains a hot color combination, said Rick Ferguson at Al Szuch Live Bait on Corduroy Road.
One of the hot spots, around the Toledo Harbor Light, provided excellent action Monday, but was slower Tuesday because of wind conditions, Ferguson said. Walleye also are being taken off K-Can, which lies just offshore of the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station.
DATEBOOK
Tomorrow:-Frogs and woodcocks, 8 p.m., Secor Metropark Nature Discovery Center; also, Saturday, Great American Cleanup, 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m., Wildwood Preserve Metropark, Ward Pavilion; for reservations call 419-535-3058 extension 103; also, Saturday, wildflower walk, 11 a.m., Swan Creek Preserve Metropark, Glendale entrance.
Tomorrow-12th annual fund-raising dinner, Maumee Valley Chapter, National Wild Turkey Federation, Jagel's Heatherdowns Place, 5072 South Heatherdowns Blvd.; doors open 6 p.m, dinner 7:15; followed by raffles and auctions; for tickets call Jeff Wright, 419-832-1461.
Tomorrow-Naturalists' Camera Club of Toledo, Secor Metropark, Nature Discovery Center, Central Avenue entrance, program by Harold Roe on Africa; also, Saturday, field trip to Goll Woods State Nature Preserve in Fulton County, call Adele Shelton, 419-474-2911.
Tomorrow and Monday-Public trapshoots, 6:30 p.m., Wolf Creek Sportsmen's Association, 349 Teachout Rd. north of State Rt. 2, Curtice; call Frank Schaffer, 419-691-2769.
Saturday-Program on frogs and salamanders, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., Hidden Lake Gardens, M-50 west of Tecumseh, Mich.; leader naturalist John Skinner; to register call the Gardens, 517-431-2060.
Saturday-Wildflower walk, 10 a.m. to noon, Blue Heron Reserve, U.S. 6 northeast of Fremont, call the Sandusky County Park District, 419-334-4495 or 1-888-200-5577.
Saturday-Wild-game dinner, Oak Harbor Conservation, Club, South Gordon Road along Portage River, Oak Harbor, doors open 5 p.m., dinner at 6:30; for tickets call Keith Kralik, 419-355-8510.
Saturday-Safe-boating class, Maumee River Yacht Club, 2735 Broadway, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., presented by U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary; call Bill Henson, 419-867-9668, or Sue Alley, 419-893-0249.
Saturday and Sunday-Maumee Valley Gun Collectors show, Saturday 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Woodland Exhibition Center, Woodland Mall, State Rt. 25, north edge of Bowling Green; call 419-893-1110.
Saturday and Sunday-Gun and knife show, Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Paulding Fish and Game Club, U.S. 127 a mile south of Paulding, call Theresa Caryer, 419-399-4420.
Sunday-Toledo Muzzle Loaders, Hardy's Fowl Shoot, 11 a.m., Clinton Boothby Memorial Range, 875 Schwamberger Rd., call Al Zielinski, 419-476-5978.
Steve Pollick is The Blade's outdoor writer. E-mail him at spollick@theblade.com.
First Published April 11, 2002, 10:59 a.m.
