Band Hunters

  • Published
  • By Airman Daniel Lile
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  (Editor's note: This is the sixth article in a series about hunting)

The Airman quickly rolls over and slaps his alarm clock quieting its incessant insistence on awakening him at four in the morning. In the back of his mind he is debating whether it's even worth it; maybe he should just sleep another three hours until it's time to get ready for work.

Then he remembers the smell of the duck pond as the sun is slowly rising into the sky, the steam rolling ever so calmly off of the dark water, and the splash of the freezing water on his hands as he throws his decoys into the black abyss.

45 minutes later he is there with a good old friend, ready to enjoy another early morning, his hands frozen and stuck to his shotgun, loving every second of it. The sun is halfway up and birds are starting to move, primetime. Two mallards have already hit the water and they have five more circling above, scanning every section of the bank for anything out of place.

The Airmen don't move a muscle, knowing if they so much as look upward toward the beautiful sunrise the ducks will see the whites of their eyes and bail off to another pond. Their patience pays off when the ducks finally decide it's safe enough to land. They drop so gracefully toward the water and land right in the middle of the Airmen's decoys.

The Airmen nervously make eye contact with each other. They don't have to talk and they don't have to make hand signals; they both know exactly how much excitement and adrenaline is pumping through each other's veins. All of the work and all of the training on the skeet range over the summer comes into play right now. They simultaneously raise their shotguns and blast away as the ducks take off, swerve and dive in every direction.

As the gunfire stops, the Airmen watch as four mallards disappear into the beautiful orange sky. They wade into the water to examine and collect the three ducks they did get; to their surprise one has a silver band around its ankle. This is truly a rare treat for any duck hunter. The band signifies that it has been marked by wildlife biologists to track where the duck flies during its migration.

"Wildlife management will put a small band around a duck's ankle when it's born to keep track of where the ducks are going and what the population is in a certain area," said Airman 1st Class Cory Scribner, 14th Operations Support Squadron Air Traffic Control Apprentice. "The only way they find out where the ducks actually went is when people kill the ducks, and then you call them in and report them. It lets the wildlife management know how the ducks are living, flying and how long they are taking to reach certain areas. It's a big deal killing banded ducks."

Duck hunters in Mississippi rarely kill banded ducks, but when one is killed it is a good indicator for biologists that ducks are indeed migrating like they are supposed to.

"I've killed three banded ducks and I have been duck hunting for five years," Scribner said. "If you ever kill one, get online and research it and call the number on the band. I killed a banded wood duck last year that came all the way from Iowa, and he was only a year old. I called in and actually talked to the guy who banded the duck and he was all excited. I hate that he only lived a year, but it's great that he made it that far south at such a young age, it shows that the ducks are migrating the way they should."

Wildlife conservation is deeply important to many hunters. Wildlife management goes to great lengths to preserve and introduce new animals into healthy habitats.

"If we don't preserve wildlife and keep their population up then we won't be hunting anymore and I don't want that to happen," Scribner said. "I want there to always be ducks flying, always be deer moving and have turkeys calling. Ten years ago Mississippi didn't even have turkeys; now we are one of the most populated turkey states because of hunters who conserve wildlife."

Many hunters, who value wildlife conservation also frown on the concept of killing just to kill, and feel as though every animal harvested is to be respected and used to the full extend for food.

"One thing about hunting that gets to me, that only a few hunters actually do, is going out just for the sake of killing something," said Staff Sgt. Cody Howk, 14th Operation Support Squadron Weather Forecaster. "Going out and killing a bunch of ducks just to do it is wrong, that's food on somebody's table, and you only kill something if you are going to eat it."