| This was about 1963, either early Spring
or early Fall, whenever duck season was open in Washington. Norm
loved to hunt birds, and he and his buddy, Dick Black, got up very
early one morn, to go duck hunting. This is what happened as told
to me by Norm.
The sun was barely up and there was a lot of low fog still hanging
around. He and Dick were on their bellies crawling up to a lake or
pond, where they could hear a lot of honking' goin' on! Moving very
slowly and being very quiet, so as not to alarm the ducks until they
were within shooting range, they tried to stay down wind, but, as
they got close to the water, the wind shifted, and by this time,
the fog had lifted some, so they could see the ducks and other birds
on the water. With the wind shift, this set off the alarm, the noise of
the birds honking and taking off, excited both of the hunters. Norm
and Dick stood up and started blasting away. Norm saw a bird within his
range fall to the ground. After things had calmed down, he and Dick,
proceeded to look for the fallen bird. They found it, all right,
but, were a bit puzzled as to the identity of it. Wasn't a duck, was it
a goose?, they weren't sure, but, they picked it up and tossed into
the truck of Dick's car, and kept on hunting.
Later that day, around 1400 hrs., I get a call at
home from Norm. He wants me to come over to Black's quarters and
bring the wild bird book with me. Okay, I get the book, put, Lisa (our
daughter) into the stroller and off we go. As I approach the Black domicile,
I see both men, standing with one leg up on the rear bumper of the
car and looking at something in the trunk! Both deep in discussion,
as I come up to them. Norm says to me "take a look at this bird,
what do you think it is?" I take one look and say, "that's a Swan!".
He says, " I was afraid you'd say that". Turns out, after researching the
bird book, that Norm had bagged a Whistling Swan, a very young, Whistling
swan. It was so beautiful, broke my heart to look at that poor dead bird
!
To end this saga, very young Whistling Swan is darn
good eating, as those who shared that dinner with us will remember.
Moral is: If you should accidentally shoot a Whistling
Swan, throw it in your trunk and head for home, and pray a game warden
doesn't stop you to see if you exceeded the limit or some such thing.
At that time the fine was over $300.00 plus maybe, jail !!
Judy Gerlich |
