Beautiful story.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alison Wagner" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2014 5:01 PM
Subject: [VTBIRD] Birder meets Hunter


> Dear Birders and Hunters,
>
>     Today while gathering wood chips for my blueberries along a back road 
> in Huntington, I noticed a small SUV driving down a steep class four road. 
> I didn’t know was drivable.  I waved the driver down to ask if it’s 
> possible to get to the top.  He said it was; he’d been up there birding. 
> Oh, no, he had said bird hunting.
>
>     “Any luck?”  I asked, but I really wanted to know if “anyone” was 
> unlucky.  Yes, he got a woodcock. I wondered if it was one of the birds I’d 
> seen and heard in the past spring(s); a bird I can actually say is a 
> “favorite” as their return to Huntington means spring is coming and many 
> more birds will soon be on the way.
>
>     I wanted to say good bye and to cherish its beauty. “Could I see it?” 
> Yes...it was so soft, so small, and still warm, as if life was still 
> clinging to it.  I stretched out its wing to try and take in all its 
> beauty.   He told me he uses these feathers to make flies and silently, I 
> thanked him.
>
>     We stood beside each other on a bridge with our secret brook babbling 
> below. He fishes here and I cool off in fabulous swimming holes.  The 
> brook is pure and wild, just like this bird, and in my heart, I felt a 
> little joy knowing this woodcock would be back again in the spring when 
> this hunter returns to catch brook trout.  He’s just like me, I thought, 
> respecting nature and loving this beautiful place.  Here, where this 
> little bird has bridged a birder and a hunter together where there is room 
> for both of us.
>
>
>
> Ali
>
> Huntington
>
>
>
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