One tough mother

Dean Romig · 01-15-2011, 10:56 PM

Makes me think of all the Red-Tailed Hawks I see dead along our highways in the winter when we have prolonged deep snow and they have no way to hunt their customary woodlote and fields. They wait in trees along the highways for mice and voles that scurry across the road surface and the younger hawks, not having had enough "close calls" to learn from.... or are just too hungry to resist the urge, fly down and pounce upon their prey only to be slammed by the next car or truck speeding along oblivious to the impending tragedy. Pretty sad. I counted seven just today.

Yes, the hunter's paradox....

Old and Reliable · 01-15-2011, 11:45 PM

A hard concept for the anti-hunting and gun banning folks to grasp. Hunting waterfowl is a lot like deer hunting from a stand or steelhead fishing- there can be a lot of waiting before the action, and here is where patience is developed, or else the "A-types" who can't sit still for long give it up and take up other interests-

I like to think about a piece the late Ted Trueblood wrote years ago in his F&S column- "Other Values"- you are in the duck boat or blind, shotgun at the ready, decoys bobbing, heavy cloud cover and a wind coming from behind you- and no ducks appear-his advise-- learn to admire the beauty of Nature and be grateful for the day and that you could leave work behind to be there, ducks or not, and have the health to use your gun if the opportunity developed--

I went out again this afternoon to hopefully pass shoot for Canadas on an area river- snow, some sunshine through the clouds, tons of mallards, but the season on ducks is now closed- so I practiced moving through the snow quietly, using shadow and trees and brush- to see how close to the bunched "quackers" I could get- if they didn't flush, and I could stay hidden, they make the best decoys, and passing geese will often look over a bend or backwater in a river that is holding ducks-

I headed slowly for a big brushy deadfall, some mallards flushed as I approached, and as I got to my spot, two greenheads (lay birds I think the quail hunters call the late flushers) got up right in front of me- I brought up the big 2E 12 Smith and covered their heads as they climbed and said- Bang, Bang boys- you're dead- brought the barrels down and saw them hightailing it around the upstream bend.

This stretch is home to a beautiful male Bald Eagle- and he was out doing his exercises in flight- what a spectacle-- he made a few passes at above tree top height, and banked away upstream- about 5 minutes later a handful of mallards came at me from upriver, and without circling, dropped right into the river- Ker-splash 5 times by my count- then disappeared, hidden from my view by the big brushy downfall- I saw the Eagle's big shadow from the corner of my eye, and then the ducks quacked and hauled freight-they had to have seen or sensed the overhead "Death From Above" spectre- and here's what's strange-all puddle ducks, especially mallards, almost jump from the water (like a big Rooster pheasant from cover) and gain height quickly- that's why the old adage- "when ducks (mallards and blacks) are taking off, shoot above their nose, when they are dropping in, shoot below their toes'-- but these five stayed low to the water and went into mach 3- they were at least 200 feet and gaining from their take-off point when they started to climb- just like divers usually do--

Why so? Can't say for sure of course, I ain't no duck- but my guess is- Mother nature told them by staying low to the water, they could better see the shadow from above of those huge wings, and could turn from the talons quicker if that became necessary to survive then if they were climbing. I'll never know, so that's just my guess-

Never heard a Canada, so after a few hours, came back home, warmed up some coffee, set the 2E on the gun room table to re-warm before a wipe down and back into the cabinet, and turned on the College basketball game--

One of my favorite of all of the late Gene Hill stories tells of his friend, who was diagnosed with a terminal disease, and his last hunt for a trophy elephant- which he didn't shoot after 6 days of bone-wracking dead-on-your-feet stalking in Africa-- "Sometimes, we come to learn, that the greatest pleasure in owning a good gun is not always using it"!!