Forest and Stream, April 6, 1882
SPRING FOWL SHOOTING.
Tourists and sportsmen -- Field sports - Hunting : Waterfowl and shorebirdNatural resources -- Conservation - Game
THE mild weather of the winter just past has had a widely different effect upon the fowl shooting in the various localities on the Atlantic coast. Along the New England shore and that of the Middle States, the fall shooting in many places lasted longer than usual, and although the birds were not especially plenty, the shooting was fair. On the Chesapeake and in the mouth of the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers, the shooting has been unusually good. The fowl collected there in great numbers, and were not obliged by the freezing of the waters to leave for their usual feeding grounds further to the south. For the same reason, the shooting south of Virginia was very poor. In Back Bay and in Currituck, Pamplico and Albemarle sounds there were comparatively few fowl, scarcely any canvas-backs and but few redheads, geese, and swans. Brant, however, were numerous along the Virginia shore and a portion of North Carolina.
From this same cause it results that in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois the ducks were abundant in February and March, the waters in many places being free from ice weeks earlier than usual.
Last year almost exactly the reverse of this was the case. The early and severe cold closed marsh, lake and stream in the Northern states, and the fowl were forced south before the advent of winter. The cold was long and severe, and many of the waters where the birds are wont to feed for most of the winter were closed to them. So it came about that the shooting that year on the Chesapeake and its tributaries was unsatisfactory, while, on the other hand, on the waters of North Carolina the birds were very numerous. Never, the gunners say, were there so many canvas-backs in Currituck Sound and to the southward as in the winter of '80-81, and never so many geese and swans. Next year another good season is expected.
The time is coming, if indeed it is not already here, when some measures must be taken to protect our fowl more efficiently than is now done. From the time the birds reach our shores in the early autumn until the survivors have winged their way in spring to their breeding grounds in the North and West, the boom of the shot gun is ever in their ears. They are shot over decoys and from points, sailed after, slaughtered from batteries anchored on the feeding grounds, and sculled up to at night with lights. They are fired at with rifles, when bedded out in the broad-water "to keep 'em movin'" and are in every way harassed and persecuted. They have no rest. All this lasts from October to May.
We have for a long time advocated the abolition of spring snipe shooting, and are inclined to take the same ground with regard to ducks. There appears to be no good reason why any fowl, with the possible exception of brant, should be shot after March first, and there are excellent reasons why shooting should cease with the end of the winter. The season when the birds are preparing to undertake the rearing of their young is not the one at which they are most desirable for food. Every female killed at this time lessens the supply of next season's fowl by ten or a dozen birds. The farmer does not kill off his ewes just as they are about to produce their lambs. The sportsman also will be wise if he spares the ducks in the spring.
We have observed that within the last few years a very noteworthy change of sentiment has taken place among the older sportsmen on the subject of fowl shooting. In the olden time it used to be said that you never could destroy or drive away the ducks and geese which then swarmed during the winter in such countless numbers in the bays and river mouths along our coast. But those whose memory can carry them back twenty or twenty-five years can see now a vast difference between what has been and what is. The number of shooting grounds along the North Atlantic coast, which have been deserted by the fowl, whose bays and flats, once resounding to the gabble of the loquacious throng, are now silent, except for the long-drawn wailing cry of the seagull, bear painful witness to the diminished numbers of the birds. We cannot but fear that a continued policy of slaughter as long as the fowl are with us will be bitterly regretted at some day in the not distant future.
Our Canadian cousins have set us an example in this matter which we would do well to follow, for, in the Province of Quebec at least, certain ducks are protected from January to August, although others, as well as geese and swans, may be shot up to May. In other portions of Canada, the shooting closes March 31.
We recommend this subject to the thoughtful consideration of our readers, and hope that something may be done about it before long. We do not like to look forward to a day when people will be wondering what has become of the ducks, as they are now speculating in regard to grouse.