Spring bird hunt brings hope of fresh meat
The return of millions of birds -- white-fronted geese and snow geese, mallards and loons, sandhill cranes and tundra swans -- signals the arrival of spring.
One night after work last week, Pat Samson of Bethel rode his four-wheeler over a bumpy, muddy and in some spots nearly impassable tundra trail a few miles out of town. He was on a goose hunt, one of his favorite things.
He brought along the bare essentials: a 20-gauge shotgun, high-end binoculars, a hatchet, a piece of plywood so he wouldn’t get soaked lying in wait on the spongy wet tundra.
The return of millions of birds -- white-fronted geese and snow geese, mallards and loons, sandhill cranes and tundra swans -- signals the arrival of spring and the start of a remarkable rural Alaska bird hunt. Alaska Dispatch News reports fromt the hunt.