Seaside Sport
Chincoteague Island and its environs, along the Maryland and Virginia coast, are the sportsmen's paradise at this season. The crack of their guns is now reverberating over the marshes, and thousands of willet, yellow-shanks, gray backs, and other sea-birds are winging their last flight. Many Baltimoreans are just beginning their annual vacations in order to enjoy this coast-shooting. All through the summer they have stuck assiduously to their business, buoyed up during the hot, sweltering days by the prospect of getting a season's outing on the marshes and of slaying birds by hundreds. The weather has already begun to temper down and the air along the coast is delightfully cool.
Daily many sportsmen may be seen at the railroad-stations and the steamboat-wharves with gripsack in one hand and gun stowed away in a cover in the other.
A SPORTSMAN'S OUTFIT.
Each sportsman should be provided with a No. 12 breech-loading gun and not less than 400 cartridges, loaded with three drachms of powder and an ounce and one eighth of No. 8 shot. His wearing apparel for shooting should consist of a canvas gunning coat, a pair of old trousers, high gum boots, a heavy woollen shirt, and a felt hat or cap. There is no need for a full-dress suit, for the sportsman at Chincoteague Island will have no balls or parties to attend. His supplies should consist of a dozen or more quinine pills and a demijohn of whiskey as breastworks against the attacks of malaria, which at this season of decaying vegetation is apt to be plentiful on the marshes. A shooting trip of two weeks should not cost a Baltimorean over $60, including cartridges, railroad or steamboat fare, hotel bills, guides, and incidentals. This sum may be reduced if the sportsman is sufficiently industrious to reload his shells and if he will divide the expenses of a guide with a companion.
HEADQUARTERS OF GUNNERS.
Chincoteague Island, on the coast of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, is the most popular resort for sportsmen. He will not have to pursue a hunt for guides. Like hackmen in the city, they are always willing to give their services, boats, and decoys for a consideration, which consideration is usually $2 per day.
The guide engaged the night before will be on hand at 5 o'clock in the morning, and a start is made for the points where the birds are usually the most abundant at this season. The hotel-keeper will provide you with a lunch. The guide will attend to all the details of the trip. Wallop's Island, Cockle Creek marshes, Simoneaston's marshes, Ragged Point, and Assateague Island are the most popular resorts for the birds.
Wallop's Island is about four miles south of Chincoteague Island. Across the narrow bay which separates it from the mainland is Cockle Creek, making up through the marshes from the mainland. The Cockle Creek marshes are on one side and the Simoneaston marshes are on the other side of the creek. Ragged Point is five miles above Chincoteague Island. and Assateague Island a little over a mile back of Chincoteague Island. At all of these points are marshes dotted with fresh-water ponds from two to four feet deep. Here the sea birds feed, if not driven off by the tide or wind, from 6 o'clock until 11 in the morning and from 2 in the afternoon until 5. The guide and sportsman will reach the feeding-grounds as the birds begin to fly, and then the fun begins.
HOW THE BIRDS ARE SHOT.
The decoys, usually ranging from twenty-five to fifty, are fixed in the mud by the prods to which they are attached. The sportsman then conceals himself in a blind constructed on shore by the guide with bushes and sea-grass. Willet, yellow-shanks, calicobacks, and graybacks are the principal birds attracted by the decoys.
The willet fly in flocks, and as soon as they sight the decoys they swing around. In doing this they bunch themselves. This is the most favorable opportunity for shooting them. Many gunners are deceived by the distance and shoot too soon, before the birds are fairly bunched. The yellow-shanks, of which there is a small and a large variety, usually fly in flocks, though they frequently enter the marshes in pairs. They fly higher than the willet, and as soon as they sight the decoys they begin to lower. Just as they are about to pitch is the time to shoot at them. If the sportsman is provided with two guns he may get three or four shots and as many birds before the flock gets away.
The flocks vary in size anywhere from six to fifty. The graybacks flock and fly together like the yellow-shanks and are shot much in the same manner. They are much tamer than yellow-shanks and are more delicious. All of these birds may be shot along the coast at low tide when they feed in the swash. The wet weather of the past two months has rendered the fresh-water ponds such desirable feeding-grounds that the coast has been abandoned. The curlew are such wild birds that the trouble in shadowing them is not paid for by the sport derived in killing them.
WHAT A SHOT BRINGS DOWN.
The willet is about the size of a pigeon, the yellow-shank is about as large as a robin, and the grayback is smaller then either. The guide will pick up the birds and carry them to the blind. The young birds are now fully grown, and while many sportsmen prefer to kill the sea birds in spring August and September are becoming the most popular season. A good marksman at this season should bag seventy-five birds if they are at all plentiful. At night after a hard day's shooting the sportsman feels like seeking his bed. If disposed, however, to while away an hour or two around the card-table he can find partners.
DUCKS AND GEESE NEXT.
The season of sea birds will last through September. Then will come the ducks. They are shot in the bays and inlets in the same manner as in the upper Chesapeake. They are generally numerous in the Synepuxent Bay above and below Ocean City, which promises to become a popular resort for sportsmen during the fall and winter. In December come the wild geese. Live decoys are used to tempt the game into the gunners' range. The geese are anchored near the shore, and from a convenient blind the gunner can get in his deadly work.
PARTRIDGES OF THE EASTERN SHORE.
The law for shooting partridges extends until after November 1st in Somerset County, where the birds are generally more abundant than in any county on the Peninsula. The season, however, does not give promise of offering many inducements for sportsmen. The birds are reported to be unusually scarce, the heavy rains of the early summer having drowned the young broods.