This is excerpts from an article written by an Outdoor writer for an Evansville, IN newspaper.

Last year, Evansville hunter Glenn York used his Thanksgiving vacation to hunt ducks.

Extra-warm temperatures had held back waterfowl numbers, but York persisted. On Nov. 29, he and a friend elected to hunt a pothole several ducks were using.

York was directed to a blind site while his hunting partner parked the truck.

York tossed out eight decoys and sat back because his buddy was going to make a sortie around the perimeter before coming in.

The partner would try to stir up loitering ducks and possible send some to York’s decoys. The plan worked; soon, a pair of mallards dropped in.

York collected the pair and noticed the drake had a band on its left leg.

The band was from the Alabama Waterfowl Association (AWA), making it a unique trophy.

York called in the band number in to the AWA and received literature that explained that the ducks had come from wild Frost Waterfowl Trust stock and were distributed in a few Alabama counties in an attempt to build a mallard flock for Dixie hunters.

"I told Jerry Davis, coordinator for the AWA, where I’d bagged my bird and he told me this was the third band recovery in Indiana during the 1997 season. "One was killed near Brazil by Randall Timberman and another was taken at Glendale’s marsh area by John Porter of Santa Claus. Mine came from Warrick County, but don’t ask where."…

Now, fast-forward to 1998. York, again on Thanksgiving break, elects to hunt waterfowl.

Again, his buddy has found a duck concentration and directs York to where they are. He is hunting less than a mile from the pothole where he’d bagged his 1997 AWA mallard.

But this time on Thanksgiving morning, York is hunting solo.

"During the three days before vacation, my buddy bagged his six duck limit each morning and had a pattern on the ducks," said York.

"He said a couple of other hunters who had permission to hunt there had homed in on his hotspot, so he advised me to set decoys in a smaller waterhole and let the snoopers hunt the area to the south."

On Thanksgiving morning, York moved into the secondary space. When dawn broke, he was greeted by gunfire from the invading hunters who had set up further away….

"I looked at my watch and it was 8:33," York recalled. "A mallard came in suddenly, but caught me moving and flared out. I tried to swing on him but looked straight into the sun and the bird made a clean get-away."

At 8:57, another mallard dropped in to the decoys. York took two shots to down it and started to rise to retrieve the bird when he heard the soft rasp of a mallard drake circling above.

"He came on in and I nailed him. He was floating in the decoys, so I went and fetched in the first one I’d shot."

Concluding two would do, York started picking up decoys and inching toward the downed drake. After sacking the final decoy, he reached frothe drake and noticed it was fully mature and very healthy looking. Then he saw it was wearing a leg band.

"I couldn’t believe it; it was another AWA band!! I headed home to show the family what I’d been blessed with."…

"Mr. Davis explained that mine was the third wayward migrant this year to be reported north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Dennis Aud of Gardner, Ind., bagged on on Oct. 28 and Joe Karponchik of Ontario, Canada collected one on Nov. 23 while hunting near Lake Erie.

What are the odds of one hunter bagging two wayward mallards in a calendar year within a mile of each other?

Davis said York had hit the duckband lottery jackpot.

"Mr. York is the only individual outside of Alabama to collect and report two of our birds," Davis said. "I told him he should go out and buy some genuine lottery tickets and use the band numbers and dates of harvest."…