noah wrote:
On Fri, 26 Dec 2003 09:06:11 -0500, Harry Krause wrote:

Capt Lou wrote:
The duck hunters in jon boats woke me up this morning, shooting ducks off
Boston harbor islands. Of course the commercial fishing guys and the lobstermen
are out there year round too.

Just this minute a nice gaggle of geese flew over the house and landed
in our field. There's a sack'o'corn I tossed out this morning waiting
for them. Edges of the fields around here are posted with variations of
our infamous "NO Hunting. Period. This Means You." signs. We have
several kinds of NO Hunting signs posted, as do our neighbors.

Harry, you and I are not as far apart as you think. I hunt, you don't, but I
have spent far more money on the preservation of wetlands and support of the
migratory birds than I have on my hunting equipment. There are few things more
beautiful than a flock of geese or ducks homing in for a landing, or rising up
off the water in the early dim light. They are an essential part of the natural
world, which is so often dismissed by those who have lost their connection with
Mother Earth. Well intentioned people fed geese at the Ann Lee Pond here in
Albany last year. Because of the food, the geese stayed well into the winter.
At Christmas we had a nasty snowstorm, and many of the geese died, because they
were 1,000 miles from habitat and climate that could support them.


I don't feed them every day, Noah. We just put out some food in the late
fall and winter while the huge flocks are heading south. We have some
acreage, and so do some neighbors, and I do believe the geese see the
land as a sort of refuge while they are heading to Boca Raton for the
winter. Or wherever they are headed. At least they won't encounter any
drooling hunters in our immediate area.

From summer through fall, most of the wetland ducks and geese feed in
the harvested fields in our area, or along the shoreline. Despite some
growth, most of the county in which we live still is rural and wooded.
We have deer with decent racks wandering across our yards. They're all
named Bambi, of course, but they do have different last names.

Hopefully, the area will keep its flavor. One of my favorite places to
walk is along the base of Calvert Cliffs, which happen to be the largest
fossil-bearing deposit of Miocene marine sediments exposed on the East
Coast. If you're lucky, you can find the teeth of sharks and sometimes
whalebones exposed or right on the beach. Me, I'm on the lookout for
Moby Dick.

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