Our enemy, our beloved

As far as I know, C.S. Lewis was never a hunter—there is an anecdote, in fact, about his misdirecting a fox hunt—but this passage from Out of the Silent Planet certainly captures the mindset of a good dangerous-game hunter; apart from the evidently aquatic habitat, this could be a Maasai speaking of the lion:

I long to kill this hnakra as he also longs to kill me. I hope that my ship will be the first and I first in my ship with my straight spear when the black jaws snap. And if he kills me, my people will mourn and my brothers will desire still more to kill him. But they will not wish that there were no hnéraki; nor do I. How can I make you understand, when you do not understand the poets? The hnakra is our enemy, but he is also our beloved. We feel in our hearts his joy as he looks down from the mountain of water in the north where he was born; we leap with him when he jumps the falls; and when winter comes, and the lake smokes higher than our heads, it is with his eyes that we see it and know that his roaming time has come. We hang images of him in our houses, and the sign of all the hrossa is a hnakra. In him the spirit of the valley lives; and our young play at being hnéraki as soon as they can splash in the shallows.

Proud to be a NAFA member

North American Falconers' Association

Position Statement

Lead in Hunting Ammunition and Fishing Tackle

The mission and purpose of the North American Falconers' Association (NAFA) includes promoting scientific study and conservation of birds of prey and an appreciation of their value in nature and in wildlife conservation programs. The health of raptors and many game species can be negatively affected by lead introduced to the environment via ammunition and fishing tackle. All these effects can impact falconry. Addressing impacts of lead hunting ammunition and fishing tackle on wildlife clearly falls within the organization’s responsibilities and concerns.

NAFA finds:

• Lead has no functional or beneficial role in biological systems. Even at very low levels of exposure, lead is dangerously toxic;
• Hundreds of scientific papers provide compelling evidence demonstrating that wildlife ingests lead from spent hunting ammunition and lost fishing tackle; this lead is toxic to wild animals, and it accumulates in their tissues;
• Studies document more than 130 species, including humans, that have been fatally poisoned by ingesting lead;
• Sub-lethal effects of lead ingestion by wildlife include decreased fitness from nervous system degradation, organ damage, behavioral changes, and impaired reproduction;
• Lead poisoning from ammunition sources is a significant barrier to the recovery of the California condor and has the potential to exert population-level impacts on other species, including eagles, waterfowl, loons, and mourning doves;
• Since the United States Fish and Wildlife Service banned the use of lead pellets for shotgun hunting of waterfowl in 1991, steel shot and other substitutes for lead have been used by waterfowl hunters with no measurable diminution in their enjoyment of this sport; and
• The "precautionary principle" supports taking reasonable preventive action as a suitable way to stop the unnecessary and immoral killing of wild birds of prey and upland game birds that ingest spent bullet fragments and shell shot. Considering the scientific evidence and given the availability of quality lead-free alternatives in hunting ammunition and fishing tackle, taking reasonable preventative action presents a suitable course to conserve both wild birds of prey and game animals.

Therefore, NAFA:

• Recognizes lead in the field from spent hunting ammunition and lost fishing tackle poses a toxic hazard to wildlife;
• Advocates the replacement of lead hunting ammunition and fishing tackle with lead-free alternatives; and
• Encourages Members to facilitate cooperation and collaboration among interested groups and individuals, including wildlife watchers, hunters, anglers, wildlife scientists, policy makers, and the public, to:
  
  
  
  • Support voluntary, regulatory, and statutory efforts to rapidly phase in the use of lead-free hunting ammunition and fishing tackle;
  • Implement educational efforts to promote greater public awareness and understanding of the health consequences of lead exposure to wildlife, emphasizing the gains for wildlife and environmental quality from the use of lead-free hunting ammunition and fishing tackle;
  • Promote additional research to add to the already compelling understanding of long-term population-level effects of lead on birds of prey and game species; and
  • Continue the monitoring of lead exposure effects on birds of prey and game species.

Approved in a regularly scheduled meeting by the Board of Directors of the North American Falconers' Association this the 24th day of May, 2012.

Developed by:

   Dr. Tom Cade
   Mr. Ron Clarke
   Mr. Bruce Haak
   Ms. Kay Neumann
   Dr. Pat Redig

Vic Chesnutt, 1964-2009

What cave have I been in? I just learned today (HT Paste magazine) that Athens, Georgia, musician Vic Chesnutt died on Christmas Day. Paste have posted a memorial playlist, which I would encourage Flyover Country readers to listen to, but let me post two more which I would consider glaring omissions:

"Degenerate", from 1996 major-label release About to Choke. Great lyrics, but it was the layered guitar that first induced me to put this song on single-track repeat.




A live performance of "Rabbit Box", originally released on Vic's first (1990) album, Little. This is a field-sports song, sort of: as he explains in the liner notes...

Rabbit Box is an illegal (in Georgia) live trap
very unsportsman-like
I don't do the hunties anymore
Truly Pike County nostalgia
you don't hunt doves with a 20 gauge
single shotgun and you don't aim shotguns
and you don't shoot birds off powerlines
but I was a stupid little kid

Vic's paralysis, the result of a drunk-driving car crash, is often cited as an influence in his music. Certainly it affected his guitar playing; he has been quoted as saying that while he could play simple chords, the "jazzier stuff" eluded him after the accident. It may also have contributed to his lyrical style, as many of his songs ("Tarragon", for example, or "Soft Picasso") are written from the perspective of an observer of relationships—and confinement to a wheelchair might certainly afford opportunities for in-depth people-watching. His music may not have been everyone's cup of tea—my wife could never get past the mock-Spanish accent he adopted for his rendition of "White Christmas" (on Flagpole magazine's Christmas album)—but he always reminded me a bit of Neil Young: insightful "outsider's" lyrics, sung in a reedy voice, often with stripped-down arrangements, very different from most "commercial" music. Or maybe Vincent van Gogh would be a better comparison: troubled but brilliant, far ahead of his time and gone far too soon.

I never met Vic, but I have always enjoyed his music, and I extend my sympathies to all his family and friends in Athens.

Okay, maybe one more: the appropriately funereal "Threads", again from About to Choke.

Church of the Red Fox

After you got out of Washington, heading toward Baltimore, it got prettier and prettier as it got hillier and hillier. Thinking back, Maryland looked more like a classic slice of English countryside than a classic slice of English countryside actually looks today. It was horsy country, and nearly every big holding had literally miles of white rail fences, with neat paddocks and immaculate barns and outhouses….Maryland was one of our very earliest "civilized" states, I suppose, and the Englishmen who followed the Calverts had plenty of time—and not too many angry Injuns—to make it into a graceful replica of what they remembered back home in England.

—Robert Ruark, The Old Man and the Boy

Ruark's observation about the English nature of the Maryland countryside holds especially true for the Green Spring, Worthington, and Western Run Valleys of northern Baltimore County. This is fox country. Here, on Butler Road (part of the Horses and Hounds Scenic Byway) near Glyndon, Maryland, is the lovely St. John's Episcopal Church. Or, to give it its full name, St. John's Church in the Valley, Western Run Parish.

[Sundial on the stone wall surrounding the grounds.]


The parish was founded in 1800, having previously been part of St. Thomas' Parish just to the south at Garrison. Initially, services were held in a schoolhouse, but a church was begun in 1816 and consecrated in 1818. On Christmas Day in 1867, fire came to the St. John's campus: the stone rectory, built in 1842, was untouched, but the church itself burned to the ground; only the steeple bell and the cornerstone were salvaged. Undaunted, the rector made plans to rebuild; the cornerstone was re-laid in 1869 and the new church, a stone building in Gothic-revival style with a hundred-foot spire, was completed the following year.

[Pretty as only the Anglicans build 'em.]


"Since the church’s resurrection in 1869", according to a parish history, "the membership count and activity within its walls has swung from vibrant to moribund and back several times." The account goes on to say:

…by the turn of the century the number of registered communicants had dropped to 15, and by 1915 the church had, in effect, ceased to function. Shortly thereafter, however, it was brought back to life by the unlikely influence of the Greenspring Hunt Club which moved its base of operations to Glyndon, Maryland, close by the church grounds, in an effort to find more hospitable territory for its cross-country chases. Hunters and horsemen followed, revitalizing the countryside and the church parish simultaneously.

For many years, St. John's has held a Blessing of the Hounds after services on Thanksgiving morning. The Green Spring Valley Hounds (organised 1892) assemble in a field across Butler Road to receive a blessing of the foxhounds as well as the horses and riders, all congregants praying for a safe and successful hunt. As noted in a church bulletin, members of the hunt are still active at St. John's as well as active in preserving open land in Baltimore County—one reason this area has been able to retain its rural character despite its proximity to a major city and the resulting development pressures.

[Sorry, the animals have to stay out here.]


When I'm able to travel the week of Thanksgiving, it's usually to the North American Falconers' Association field meet, so it may be quite some time before I attend the Blessing of the Hounds at St. John's. But I'll try to remember to send a prayer, pagan though it may be, for the welfare of the hunt and their quarry. Long may the chase continue.

[Carved into a timber on the churchyard's front gate: "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving."]

Smokepole hunting

My brother Greg, who has never hunted before, just took his first white-tailed deer during Maryland's black-powder season. Not with one of those modern in-line jobbies, either: his thunderstick is an 1861 Springfield rifle, firing a .58-caliber Minié round. That's a big chunk of lead, and I wasn't surprised to hear his doe dropped where she stood. One deer, one shot.

This particular Springfield pulls double duty. It's more often fired, sans Minié ball, at bluecoats when Greg re-enacts with the 13th Virginia. He is the adjutant for the Confederate Military Forces Society; in addition to dressing up and playing soldier (often for the education of kids at living-history events), the CMF raise funds for battlefield and flag preservation.

Greg's deer tag allows him to take two does and a buck, so there may be more pictures to follow. Meanwhile, Greg, congratulations! (And save me some venison.)

Update: Two corrections from Greg. First of all, he took his doe during the regular firearm season, during which he can also hunt with his muzzleloader. Secondly, he has to take two does and a buck before he's eligible for an extra buck stamp—but he can take as many as ten does.

I think the Maryland DNR may be getting serious about thinning the herd; the issues, as usual, are carrying capacity (too many deer overbrowse their habitat, leading to drastic fluctuations in deer populations and adverse effects on other wildlife) and human-deer conflicts (especially vehicle-deer collisions). Successful hunters who may not actually need eleven or twelve deer are encouraged to participate in Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry, a program that puts venison where it's needed most.

Mitchell shoots more than pretty pictures

Last weekend, contributing photographer Mitchell Renteria shot his first turkey—a 20-pound tom—near Cambridge, Nebraska.

Note the absense of elaborate camouflage (he was in a blind) and other paraphernalia. All it took was knowing where turkeys were likely to be, the ability to sit still for an hour and a half, and a good eye over the shotgun barrel. (He's on his high-school trap-shooting team, so this was likely an easier shot.) Congratulations, Mitchell!