In Pursuit Of Maine: May 6, 2015 - Poacher

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

May 6, 2015 - Poacher

I’m not sure if everything survived the winter or if it was all replaced with an exact duplicate, although I’m favoring the latter. The pond is once again the pond. The ice is all gone and the Canada Geese are back, honking and hissing away.

There’s a poacher who has been coming down to the pond. I spotted him a week ago but he didn’t see me. Then later I had parked my car on a dirt road to take a picture of something I saw, and who came up behind me but the poacher himself. He honked his horn like crazy instead of going around me, so I knew right away he wasn’t from around here. We don’t usually honk our horns at anyone for any reason. Driving is a fairly quiet experience here as compared to other regions of the country.

The once peaceful pond.

But back to the poacher. You see, even though I don’t actually “own” this pond (no one does), I kind of look at it as mine anyhow. No one ever comes here but me--and now the poacher--and I don’t take kindly to the disruption of the wildlife around here or the mad honking of horns that shatter my peace. It’s not that I don’t eat game; I do, but I do so fairly and legally. Hunting season for Canada Geese is fall, not spring.

What to do? I’ll continue to watch him. He has been hiding a canoe in the reeds, and I just might have to mess with it. There’s more than one way to deal with this, and I might as well make it fun. After all, what’s he going to do? Report me?

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