One day last week we turned on the TV a
few minutes before the noon news started. There on the screen was a
magnificent male wild turkey with its tail feathers spread wide... as
it calculated its chances of romance with a female of the species.
Suddenly there was a very loud bang and
the proud male bird collapsed into a pile of trembling feathers. The
camera shifted its focus to a beaming young lad with a large gun.
He was being congratulated by his father on his first turkey kill.
Now I do enjoy eating turkey for
Christmas, or Easter, or at any time for that matter. And I've got to
admit to having used turkey quill feathers and those of various other birds like peacocks, as in the example on the right, in the process of tying
trout flies with which to capture that sometimes illusive prey for fish dinner. But
right before lunch, at a time when many young children
might be watching the notorious one eyed monster, could it really be
appropriate to go: bang, your dead?
I do enjoy photographing birds, and
often times spend hours at a stretch, patiently waiting beside
streams or in meadows waiting for them to pose appropriately in front
of the camera. Sometimes I just sit quietly watching their antics, or
identifying a species with the aid of binoculars and a bird book, if
a new one has appeared or one whose name I have forgotten.
I've never personally shot anything
larger than a rabbit, and where I come from, these are considered to
be pests by farmers and gardeners alike. And I am certainly not a
vegetarian or vegan, and absolutely not a subscriber to that PETA
cult. Neither do I oppose the seal hunt because I believe there are far too
many of them out there in the ocean devouring the fish that I enjoy catching.
I suppose its a matter of each to his
own... in this dog eat dog world.
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