People who look upon hunting solely as a meat harvesting exercise are known by several lowly names, the most polite being “meat hunter.”

While there’s nothing wrong with harvesting game – it’s one of the best reasons to hunt – “meat hunter” generally refers to people with few ethics. It’s a low born description, and one I wouldn’t want to be saddled with since it applies to hunters who are greedy and unethical.

Fortunately, few hunters fit into this category. The majority of hunters are sensible, considerate and law-abiding. And while they enjoy the fruits of their hunting immensely, they don’t live and die by the heft of their game bag.

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When Wayne Downey asked me if I was interested in running coyotes with him my first question was, “Are you going to use your hounds?”

His reply puzzled me. “No, you’ll see how we run them when we get out,” he said.

He could have said, “Yes, we’re using hounds but not the four-legged kind,” and I really would have been mystified.

Later Wayne explained that running coyotes with hounds was unproductive and they had stopped doing it. “Put a hound on its track and a coyote would often hit out for 10 or 12 miles or end up somewhere on the North Mountain. We wouldn’t get the dog back for days and it was dangerous as well. Sometimes the coyotes would run along the shoulder of the road.”

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A year ago I reported several sightings of wild turkeys in various areas around the Annapolis Valley. As I mentioned in that report, people have been seeing turkeys in the wilds around here for a decade or more. Turkey sightings are almost commonplace, in fact; and the farther west you travel in the Valley the more sightings there are.

Since there have been no releases by the Department of Natural Resources, the birds established in various Valley coverts obviously come from private stocking. While this is illegal and contrary to the Wildlife Act – a clause in the Act specifically forbids turkey introductions – this hasn’t stopped individuals from releasing birds.

There’s nothing new in this. The truth is that people have been attempting private introductions of turkeys and other game birds for over half a century, and perhaps even longer. There was at least one “official attempt” by the Department of Natural Resources to introduce turkeys. In 1957 the Department released several pairs of wild turkey and chukar partridge. Monitored closely, these introductions were deemed to be failures. The turkeys and chukar apparently found the Nova Scotia winters too severe.

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When no hunting accidents were reported in 1996, the Department of Natural Resources said it was the “safest hunting season ever recorded in Nova Scotia,” and the fourth consecutive year there were no shooting fatalities.

This is quite a record when you consider that in an average deer season around 50,000 hunters roam the woods carrying rifles. Since thousands of grouse and woodcock hunters are in the woods with shotguns the same time as deer hunters, and there is some overlapping of pheasant and deer hunting territory, this record is astounding.

Natural Resources says that credit for the decline of hunting accidents can be given to the hunter education programs, which became mandatory in 1980. In a release last February, Natural Resources said that since 1980 there has been a 50 percent reduction in accidental shootings and fatalities.

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Here in Nova Scotia – following the American example, perhaps – we have a season for crow hunting. If you check the regulations booklet provided with your hunting license, you’ll discover that this season runs from September 1 to March 31.

Why a special season for crows? This bird has never been protected and has always had nuisance and minor predator status. At one time it was open season on crows and it was legal to hunt them any time.

Actually, the designation of a crow hunting season from September to March is misleading and inaccurate. The hunting regulations also say crows may be “taken or killed” any time of year by an owner/occupier of a property or an agent of the owner/occupier. Provided that crows are damaging property – and I suppose picking at young corn, roosting in an ornamental tree or depositing droppings on rooftops would apply here – a landowner could give anyone permission to hunt these birds at any time. In other words, if you wish to hunt crows other than in that silly designated season, convince a landowner those pesky birds are destructive and offer to act as his agent.

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As reported in last week’s column, there was extensive tree damage during the recent ice storm. Someone referred to the storm as “just one of old Mother Nature’s ways of cleaning up the forest” and my observations confirm she definitely did an effective but devastating job.

While tree damage was considerable, most of the comments I heard about the ice storm concerned wildlife. For days after the storm, the woodlands were locked in an icy grip and some hunters felt this would create hardships for deer. These fears were unfounded, however. According to Department of Natural Resources biologist Tony Nette the storm had little effect on deer and there was no need for alarm.

“The ice storm could not be considered a major problem to Nova Scotia’s deer herd as it affected only some areas of the province, and unlike the Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick situation was of relatively short duration,” Mr. Nette said via e-mail.

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When the tide peaked at mid-morning the wind rose, shaking the hardwoods and sending showers of debris down around us. Tree limbs snapped and popped; as the wind increased the branches of dead trees were ripped off and blown away. Bent by the howling wind, the tips of small birches split open.

We were rabbit hunting in woods close to the Bay of Fundy at the time – I could see whitecaps and hear the roar of the surf as it pounded the shore – and it soon became evident on that mild February day decades ago that it wasn’t the safest place to be. Later I read that winds during the peak of the storm reached record intensity – over 100 knots – causing damage in the millions of dollars. Oddly, what I remember most about the storm was how difficult it was to hear our hound as it circled a rabbit. The wind made a peculiar, high pitched howl and I swear that the forest was shrieking in protest as it was blasted.

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Ten days before the ice storm crippled this area the thermometer climbed to an unseasonal plus seven and it appeared to be ideal rabbit hunting weather.

It was a different story in the woods, however. Under the trees, the drip of melting snow made tracking difficult and my companion’s little hound hunted erratically. Eventually, we bagged the rabbit the hound had relentlessly pursued. Another rabbit, kicked from a clump of spruces, was added to our bag just before it started to drizzle… a drizzle that changed to a steady rain in a matter of minutes.

Standing under the trees out of the wet we watched the hound potter around nearby. “We might as well pack it in,” my companion said. “The dog’s having enough problems as it is without the rain.”

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“Bird banding,” a voice with a down south American accent said.

“I have a duck band to report.”

“Just one moment, please.” A brief pause and then, “Thank you for calling and reporting the band. Now, I’ll need some information. Where are you calling from and where did you obtain the band?”

I assumed I was talking to someone in Maryland. The band on the mallard I had bagged December 29th had an 800 number and the address of the U.S. Wildlife Service in Maryland. There was a drawl in the voice that asked me for details – the tag number, approximately where I bagged the duck, my name and address and so on.

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A week before the waterfowl season closed a spell of mild weather cleared snow covered stubbles and opened ice-locked streams. After the thaw there were several days of excellent duck shooting on dykeland fields and streams.

How good was the duck hunting? Well, one hunter told me that it was like the videos you see of waterfowl haunts on the prairie flyways; flock after flock of ducks coming to stubbles and open water with non-stop shooting.

This seems like an exaggeration; but while I was jumpshooting the last Friday of the season, I counted between 40 and 50 shots on the dykes in the time it took me to walk half a mile of stream. Based on the shooting I heard, the ducks really had to be pouring in; the reports I got later on several dykeland hunts confirmed that they were.

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