Category: Hunting
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Mid-morning break at Palmer Station, in the galley, somebody on the All Call said “Whales.” Then someone said “Minkes” but as the whales hurtled closer, everyone said “Orcas!” People rose and exclaimed. We could see tall fins of orcas racing toward us. They swam into Hero Inlet. Palmer overlooks Hero Inlet, and the deck on…
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Deer, bears, and chipmunks were excellent aspects of my summer camp experience. Then there was the frog relocation scheme. Sometimes – often – and I now realize that at these times we were probably supposed to be in the crafts A-frame or playing volleyball by the lake or rehearsing for the talent show – we…
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I figured out how to get close to deer at summer camp. It was a great camp, where we slept outside and cooked our own meals. A wilderness camp, except not the kind where they force you to belay off things. The forest was full of black-tailed deer (Odocoileus columbianus), including does with fawns. I…
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Once upon a time there was a giant diving ocean goose – wait, no, maybe a giant diving ocean duck – so specialized for diving after fish it couldn't fly. It was as big as a Canada goose – anyway, a small Canada goose – okay, probably as big as nine pounds. Maybe it was…
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Modoc County Road 1 runs through the long, narrow Surprise Valley in high desert of northeastern California. It's in a narrow band between mountains and alkaline lakebeds in the valley bottom. In this narrow band irrigation allows agriculture. Sagebrush has been replaced by grain crops. Ground squirrels feel the need to dash across this road…
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Curiosity killed the cat. I never heard exactly how. But The History of Borough Fen Decoy, written by Tony Cook & R.E.M. Pilcher, explains how curiosity killed a lot of ducks. With the help of some dogs. A decoy, in this sense, is not a fake duck meant to encourage real ducks to fly down…
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