Dead duck(s)

On our weekend in Maine, one of the somewhat interesting things we stumbled into was this story. We came upon three or four men,(I can't remember which) with a boat, and the boat and they were all in camouflage. They were coming out of the bay and had just loaded their boat on a trailer behind their Suburban or whatever big SUV they had. Now, it's around freezing, and these guys are in camo coming out of the ocean and I am wondering what the devil is going on here? 


So, what better thing to do than to ask? So, with camera in hand, I approached, though somewhat hesitantly, but still extremely curious. When I got close to them it all became clear. As the picture below shows, they had been duck hunting, and they were laying out their take for a picture for themselves. I introduced myself, explained my curiosity and they were only too glad to explain. They were doing late winter hunting for "treasure" birds, that would be, if they were good enough, stuffed and used in a museum display. They had had extraordinary luck they said and they felt that all of these would be able to be used for the organization that had asked them to do this hunt. They said they had been here other times and had not seen hardly a bird, yet this time they came away with such a huge amount of success.


While this picture may be somewhat disturbing to some, when I learned that they would be used in a museum, for educational purposes, I thought differently than I did at the initial sight, and I congratulated them on their successes. They also said this was the last weekend, or very near then end of  the season that was open for these birds, so they also felt extremely fortunate in so many ways. They did name them off, but this storekeep from the hills of Connecticut totally missed all that. But that was also part of my learning process for camera work. Next time, I should have taken their picture with their kill, and also jotted down what kinds they were exactly.


There sure is a learning curve to this blogging business. :)