Jump-shooting ducks from a moving boat like you seem to be describing is
actually illegal, much like spot-lighting or herding deer.
Dean Edwards
Knoxville, TN
On Sun, 31 Jan 2016, Ron Hoff wrote:
TN-birders,=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================
Dollyann & I were out with a couple of friends today doing a bit of birding
from Louisville Point Park to the Ish Creek embayment in Blount Co., around
10 am. We spotted a Ross?s Goose at Hitch pond along Lowe?s Ferry Rd.
(35.81621, ?84.11617). It was hanging around with some domestic ducks behind
the house there.
We got to the Ish Creek embayment and at first only found nearly 90
Pied-billed Grebes at the small finger of the embayment near Lowe?s Ferry
Rd., and virtually nothing else was around except a few gulls. We drove a bit
further until we came to Marcia Davis?s new home (it?s gorgeous!). We saw
Marcia outside her place and drove into her driveway to say hello. She was
kind enough to take us on a quick tour around her lovely grounds. While we
were walking around we heard some shotgun blasts and Marcia said some local
hunters were hunting ducks on the embayment. Today was the last day of duck
hunting season in Tennessee.
We saw that the hunters were two guys, one on the shore and one in a john
boat. Eventually they both got together into the boat and were boating around
the embayment looking for ducks with binoculars and shooting at them. We
didn?t see any ducks to shoot at until we finally saw two birds flying away
from the hunters. It turns out they were both White-winged Scoters. We
eventually saw one other bird and it turned out to also be a White-winged
Scoter but it didn?t flush when the other 2 birds did. We thought the hunters
had wounded it and every time the hunters got close to it, the scoter dove
under the water instead of flying. We finished our visit with Marcia and
decided to check the Ish Creek boat launch for gulls or anything else there.
When we got to the Ish Creek boat ramp, we didn?t see anything else in the
way of birds, but did see the 2 hunters, who had pulled their boat out onto a
trailer and were getting ready to leave. As we drove past them, I saw 2
White-winged Scoter carcasses they were putting into their truck.
Strictly my opinion: by and large I am not against hunting, as long as the
population of what you are hunting can withstand it. But how ?sporting? is it
when you have a fairly confined area and you run around the area with a fast
boat and track down the only waterfowl in the area until you slaughter them?
Shooting ducks in a barrel hardly seems ?sporting? to me.
Ron Hoff
Clinton, TN
