Bird Wise Observations: A Hunter
We’re talking to various user groups for their experience and best practices in response to the visiting birds. Victoria Roberts is a duck hunter from Seattle whose family origins on her father’s side date back to the 19th century gold prospecting days of the Skagit river, when her family homesteaded in the Skagit Valley and on Whidbey Island, outfitting prospectors and fur trapping to make a living. Today, Roberts continues her family’s outdoor traditions in the Skagit near Edison, where she and her husband Engle Saez have leased land to duck hunt for over two decades. She addresses her connection and stewardship to the land, her observations of landscape and social changes, and her interactions with both other hunters and the general public.
I don’t know a lot of birders, but I think I see birds like birders do; I see the birds. When I talk to people who are not in this bird-oriented lifestyle, I find a lot of them walk by and miss it entirely. It seems there’s not a connection to nature for them like there is for me. My connection is baked in, it’s part of me.
You can’t talk about hunting or birding without talking about spirituality and nature, the connectedness and greater consciousness of where we exist, this interaction with nature. Hunting and being outdoors, this pull to the Skagit valley, it’s a connection to nature that I feel in my bones.
We’ve been coming to Skagit for 24 years. The duck numbers are as robust as ever and there are definitely more snow geese. And there are more people (here to see or hunt the birds)! I see more people as a good thing. If people are aware then they’ll contribute. Ducks Unlimited and the Federal Duck Stamp are the two biggest support sources for waterfowl conservation in the U.S.
There are limited places to hunt in Western Washington, however; it’s pretty much Skagit, Sequim and a few other places which are part of the Pacific flyway. My husband and I hunt on private property. The private land that’s leased to hunters is passed down through the owners, some who are hunters and want the legacy of hunting to continue. These properties have gun clubs on them or they’re farms with gun clubs. The gun clubs are small. Ours has only five members, for instance.
Some people who are not a member of a gun club either because they don’t have the relationships or surplus cash will try to access private property by boat, putting in at the public boat launch and approaching private land that way. They can put out decoys in the water beside the private land as long as the decoys are not anchored, but then the whole point of decoys is anchoring them or the tide takes them out. It’s illegal to anchor decoys because then that’s considered use of private property. Either way, when other hunters are doing the decoy luring on the other side of our dike without permission, we don’t get as many birds coming in to where we hunt
We’re privileged because we can afford to hunt on private land. Trespassers are for us the newest and most visible issue on the water now. We never had a problem with them until about 5 years ago. We observe more and more people encroaching from the water side to hunt, in boats. We haven't experienced as many people walking onto the property from the land side. The land we lease is behind Edison and is not easy access for a casual visitor. You have to know about it.
There aren’t property signs facing the water. It’s possible but not likely that hunters taking their boats there aren’t aware it’s private property. A person I’ve confronted twice is a local, and he should know better. I think he was disrespectful of us because we’re from Seattle and have resources to hunt where he doesn’t. But he also trespassed on the club next to us and they’re local so it seems to be more an issue of land access, who has permission and who doesn't. Some people who don’t have access are resentful about it and go around the law, which in the end doesn't benefit anyone.
The confrontation can get ugly. I’ve had one hunter tell me he knows what I look like and that I shouldn’t go into town. It’s scary confronting someone who’s sitting there with a shotgun. I didn't know at the time if he was a local or an out of towner but I assumed local because he knew where to put his boat in, and then his comment about knowing what I look like. It’s a small community of hunters and everyone knows each other. I’ve had maybe five confrontations with other hunters over trespassing, and it’s all been in recent years.
The jurisdiction is confusing. On these occasions we called both the game wardens and the sheriff. We were told there isn’t anything we can do unless law enforcement catches the trespassers in real time. I had everything on video and confronted the same person twice but I was told that’s not enough for law enforcement.
Yes, this conflict between out of towners and locals for use of the available land, it’s an elephant in the room. Bottom line, whether someone has money or not they have to behave in a certain way when hunting. Obey the law with limits, be respectful of the birds, handle your gun properly, follow unwritten hunting etiquette rules. You’re up there to hunt and there’s a certain expectation of behaviors you expect from other hunters. I am an out of towner, from Seattle. Whether I’m from the East Coast or born in Skagit, as long as I support and respect the community, the land, the wildlife, and bring a relationship-building attitude with me when I visit, I know I can have a mutually beneficial experience of the place. I develop relationships with people first. We lease land from a property owner we got to know first.
We have developed relationships in Skagit over the last 24 years. Some of our closest friends are up there. We know the other hunters in the area. We observe the laws and hunting ethics. We spend money in Skagit. And what we take in game we eat for the whole year! We eat everything we shoot and anything our dog can’t fetch the eagles can scavenge.
With the recent cold weather the ducks were acting crazy because they knew it was going to freeze and the birds were in the fields to forage and fatten up before snow came. The birds come to the fields at dusk to eat all night and then return to the water at daylight. The birds returned to the fields midmorning and that’s when the hunting was good, when they flew back into the fields to eat. The hunt happens when the birds are active, calling them in, understanding the birds behavior, which birds they are, why they’re doing what they’re doing. I don’t know anyone who just shoots sitting ducks, that’s not cool. Calling in ducks is an art and it’s fascinating, it’s part of understanding the birds.
The ducks from Skagit taste superior to commercial duck meat. They’re eating grains like barley and corn, and starch like potatoes, and you can taste the difference. The meat from smaller game like ducks is more tender than larger game.
The thing about hunting is that it’s a lifestyle, and we live and think this lifestyle. I approach coming to Skagit holistically with all of this in mind. I don’t bring who I am to wherever I go, I let the place teach me how to be within it.
By: Bryony Angell