Shooting Two Ways, Part One

Imagine spending 56 years of your life exploring the Atlantic coast from Newfoundland (Canada) to the Gulf shores of Vera Cruz (Mexico)!  This coastline is more than 6,000 miles!  George Shiras was both a sportsman with a gun and a photographer with a camera.  He begins his account with summarizing his study.  "The results of the occupation of the region by civilized man for centuries will show surprisingly small effects on the face of nature as a whole," Wild Life of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts: A Field Naturalist's Photographic Record of Nearly Half a Century of Fruitful Exploration, National Geographic Magazine, September, 1932, p. 261.

Mr. Shiras mentions the disappearance of several animal and plant species, but states that the others have adapted to man. Also, "We have a marked renewal of forests in progress . . . white tailed deer is probably more numerous than at any previous time in history," p. 261.  I personally would conclude that we have even more deer in our urban areas than ever before as in the past several years two have ran into two different cars of mine (with extensive damage to the cars and the ultimate sacrifice for the deer).

FYI:  Hunters of ducks wait in blinds that hide them from the skittish birds.  The hunters build a little hut covered with green tree branches.  Sometimes they use a boat for a blind.  They position themselves upwind of where the ducks may feed.  The hunters may lure them with floating wooden decoys made in the image of the duck they're seeking.

Sandpiper, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, Atlantic coast, U.S.A., personal photos, February, 2014.

Egret in the swamp, City of Hilton Head, February, 2014.

In 1904, Mr. Shiras, as a U.S. Representative, introduced into Congress the original Migratory Bird Bill.  "This measure subsequently became a law and later on was merged in the bird treaty with Canada," (p. 271).  Prior to this protection, hunters shot an incredible number of birds for sport, depleting several species, among them the colorful parakeets and parrots.

Wild duck, Jacksonville, Florida, February, 2014.

Wild ducks on lake, Port St. Lucie, Florida, February, 2014.

My treasure, a live Starfish!  I felt compelled to throw it and the others I found back into the ocean.  Hilton Head Island, Feb. 2014.

THE most exciting wildlife sighting of February: baby alligators in a ditch in the city of Hilton Head, S.C.

Mama!  The Big Cahoona!  At least EIGHT feet long, I'm sure this Alligator was too large for the city of Hilton Head and would be captured & released in Florida's Everglades or somewhere far from people!  Looking back, it wasn't that far away from our car - I should have never opened the car door - these creatures can be fast when they need to!  There were about a half dozen more baby alligators in the shadows here but they're very hard to spot.  March, 2014.

In addition to birds and deer, the author details caribou, moose, raccoons, rats, America's only native marsupial, the opossum, swamp rabbits, and wildcats.  When he put out goose decoys, "the older swans eyed them with contempt," (p. 287).  The younger swans (called cygnets) sometimes attacked the decoys.  Next blog: more on Mr. Shiras' wildlife sightings.