The seventh occurrence of Harlequin Ducks in Utah is now over. Why? Because a hunter or hunters shot all three. They were apparently shot from the Antelope Island Causeway, where birders had been reporting them from, and, even worse, it seems that the hunters might have learned of their presence from birding listservs.
This would seem to be yet another example of the interests of birders and hunters not coinciding.
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
Some hunters have a “checklist” of birds they have shot and some like to mount rare birds. I have seen some of these mounts at Sportsman’s Shows where they have a amateur taxidermy contests. And I have met hunters while birding who ask if there is anything “good” around.
Hey we can beat that here in Alberta! 10 + yrs ago, we had a big push to try to allocate upto 10% of the province, as natural areas. The government agreed with us and said we should give them a list of all the areas we thought were significant. so we did. After we gave them the list, We found those properties were the prime areas up for sale by the government on the next land sales to the Oil industry, and they sold like hotcakes. so no you know why you don’t hear about rare birds from Alberta!
These creatures are in our care. It says in the Book. And, you had better believe the Great Spirt is watching and is all-knowing about your actions. Also, other animal spirits know what you are doing…..some how, some way you will pay.
I’m from Utah and saw these little guys. My husband and I visited the Island two weeks ago and looked for them again. I had a bad feeling when the ducks weren’t at their regular spot. The hunters along the causeway gave us the creeps. We’re both really upset because there is no legal recourse for this crime against ethics.
Visit http://utahbirders.blogspot.com/ for constructive ways to voice your rage (look for the second or third post).
Just a comment on duck hunting in general. I learned that one of the best places to see and photograph lots of ducks in the Southeast USA
was right here in South Florida. It is a state game area pretty much open only to duck hunters. So I went and bought myself a duck
hunting license and went in with the hunt. They were right. A whole lot of ducks, mostly blue-winged teal and ring-necks but lots of green-wings, mottled, black-bellied whistling ducks, and an occasional lesser scaup on the day I was there.
I had never seen a hunt before. It was interesting, to say the least. There seem to be two kinds of hunters. One group uses decoys and only shoots at birds that come near, hitting most of them. The other shoots at anything that flies by and usually misses. While I was watching, well over half the birds shot were wounded and not killed. It was sad to see such a perfect flying machine instantaneously reduced to a flopping upside down mass hopelessly flailing a pair of feet or wings at the surface of the water. I finally began to cheer to myself when a duck made a safe landing. No one had dogs. Periodically a hunter would wade out to collect the shot birds. It seems that the standard maneuver when a duck is found still alive is to grab it by the head an twirl it like a burlesque dancer would do with a string of beads. I’ve seen this on You Tube done with large geese or swans as well. It’s shocking when you see it the first time. I suppose this is considered a fast and humane way to end it all, but there was not a whole lot of respect paid to the loser of what is supposed to be a sporting combat.
Finally at the end of the day the bag of ducks were reduced to a mass of bodies stuffed into an styrofoam cooler. Their faces were unrecognizable after the neck maneuver. Everything was just limp. The smell of mixed blood and water from the bottom of the cooler reminded me of the old-time butcher shops my parents used to frequent when I was a kid. Slightly nauseating. An ignominious end to what has always been for me a creature of wonder.
I am not against hunting. Hunters love the outdoors just as much as birders do. They provide a lot of conservation money in the process. I suppose that all these ducks will be eaten and enjoyed. The chicken I ate for lunch met a similar end for my benefit. It just hurts to see it all happen.
I relate a story every time someone goes on about how “skilled” or “responsible” waterfowl hunters are. I frequently visit a NWR in eastern North Carolina that allows duck hunting.
At noon, birders are allowed to enter the areas that are otherwise closed for the hunters in the morning. Driving along the road you can look in the canals and see dozens of dead birds – herons, ibis, coots, ducks, grebes – floating in the water, taken by hunters who don’t even think to identify the birds they shoot before they pull the trigger and left where they lay after the realization that it’s not a game species or after the bag limit has been reached.
It would be nice to see a stronger reaction from hunters and hunting organizations against this sort of indiscriminate slaughter. But they’re rarely forthcoming. Conservationists, my ass.
As I sit here and read these posts, I say to myself, this is not what I see. My 9 year old daughter and I are avid waterfowlers. We enjoy the sport, eat everything we shoot and “rarely” shoot a bird we cannot recover. Tell me this, if a racoon crawls into a duck box and snatches up the entire family dwelling, tearing wings off one by one while the ducks suffer to it’s death, will you hate the racoon? Many of us are part of organizations that are the reason why you still have ducks to take pictures of. I recently have been building wood duck boxes and installing them along a lake in northern california, am a lifetime member of California Waterfowl Association and a member of Ducks Unlimited. I know that I am an ethical hunter and dont sky bust or take “risky” shots that would not allow a clean kill however, I am not by any means saying that every shot is a perfect one. I have never seen ducks or any other type of waterfowl or falconry laying dead in a slough. It’s ubsurd to think that just because you see one or two unethical hunter that the rest of us are as well. If you were to ask my daughter what would happen if she was to accidentaly shoot a bird even such as a hawk or black bird, she would tell you that my dad would make me eat it because I should of known what I was shooting at. I am not trying to pick a fight here, me and my family were just talking to several bird watchers at the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge who thought it was great that a hunting family is also coming out to teach his children the beauty of God’s creations. I must ask you this… what leg do you have to stand on if you ever eat a steak, chicken, turkey, bacon or how about the egg taken from a chicken even. Some of these deaths are far worse than what hunters are doing. thanks for listening.