Out of the Hunter’s Sensual Reach.

Remember this: Life is a little drama.

Dubiously I refer to women as huntress but I have difficulties with this verbiage because it does seem to lack a certain lady-like quality. I use it anyway because people know the word and accept it as a descriptive of a woman who hunts whether ladylike or not. I think men like it because it carries the weight of being wild and untamed but being wild and untamed in the male/female relationship goes towards cheap, easy, and disposable. This being said if you’re in a long standing relationship where both parties are comfortable with daring sexual acts by all means-have at it.  Men and women both like romantic amours but society frowns down on promiscuousness. It’s really better to be committed because at least you’re secure to some degree on familiarity. It reminds me of the concept of a trusty pair of well-worn holey shoes you can’t seem to part with.  Men like the idea of this temporary condition but want to have some control over their woman maybe because this makes their role clear even if it makes a woman’s murky. Once again women need to give men a job or a purpose in life and not a hard time (its alienating). Men want the job as protector and boss. That is just how it is. Unless they give up that job and want to cook, clean and have babies (scary thought but the marvels of modern science).

I have always had a general hope for opposite sex relationships (or anyone wanting such a thing). If people want to be together- go for it I say. As I was doing some research on the Southern Belle of Antiquity I was immersed in the construction of a myth: the myth of the Southern Belle. The more bizarre antidote about this is the creator: the Southern Gentleman. How does this pertain to hunting? Let me elaborate.

Back in the golden days, men regarded Southern Women (with breeding) as ladies. Their roles were to navigate the social circles without damaging the family reputation, running the house while the man was away, and being there for family, friends, and husband. We could say all things feminine. Ladies were not in direct competition for the necessities of life but rather sheltered by the Gentleman Hunter a.k.a. the husband or father. Nevertheless the Gentleman Hunter was the all-encompassing provider unless the lady was endowed with money at marriage. These women were stereotyped much like the women of the 40s and 50s. Housewives with no longing for an adventurous life outside the home other than what the significant other could provide. Southern Belles were also placed on a pedestal where they were beyond sexual desire and unblemished. This myth building of an ideal of what that particular woman was stringently defined her lot in life and how she was perceived by society and her significant other.

How does this myth building come into play with Hunting? I asked myself that question after reading up on the antebellum ladies of society.

If the hunter and huntress are at odds because of conflict based on competition for hunting based jobs, position in society and community, and role as the patriarchal authority figure (or provider) over home and hearth this could cause the Gentleman Hunter to react in a very defensive way.

The first thing an animal will do is try to drive off a threat with a defense mechanism brought on by hidden or direct threats. I have seen something akin to this in the Gentleman Hunter community. It is the myth building of the hunter’s ideal woman.

Women that hunt are not perfect physically or mentally. Yet the Gentleman Hunter community without knowing it is advertising their ideal huntress in photos on social media. It literally works as a repellant to the average huntress. This may be so reactive that the Gentleman Hunter does not know consciously that he is literally pushing back against the perceived barrages of female invasions into his hunting space, which is sacred to him. It defines his manliness and he doesn’t want to compete with a woman over manliness. Women are women-not men but they take on male roles to compensate for lack of a partner to fill the void of what would be considered ‘your rock’. Poor Cassiopeia is chained to a rock and the wolves are at the door therefore she acts like a man without a choice.  No man steps up to do the job or save her from chain and rock. Also by pushing pictures of an ideal unattainable woman in the guise of a huntress the Gentleman Hunter is sending subtle signals to the female competition that they are not what he or others desires. This is a complete lie but it’s a defense mechanism because they are threatened when there is no need for it. Men have anxiety too. On the other hand the huntress wants to be with the Gentleman Hunter but in the effort to have something in common confuses the situation more. A sad explanation of this tragedy is lack of home training when it comes to bonding with each other by communication and compromise with a willingness to understand and hold each other in equal regard.

Can the Gentleman Hunter and the Lady that hunts come to terms with this invasion into manly space? I don’t know the answer to that.

Therefore you could say to save himself the Gentleman Hunter has pushed the huntress away from him physically to save himself or his sense of self. The huntress has taken on a role that is not so much hers and relinquished the Gentleman Hunter of his responsibility to be the man. Both have inadvertently separated each other from beyond the sensual reach of the other.

Hunting has been about the eternal struggle of man against beast but in this case its man against woman. I hope it’s a draw for all our sakes.

Really can’t this be overcome or do men and women need one more thing to pull them apart? Hunting should be about forming bonds. What is a greater bond then sharing in something with someone you love? Let’s hope that ship has not sailed yet.

Written by W Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Cultivating Silence, Skulking, Lurking and Shadowy Avoidance.

Remember this: Wild creatures have no thought of the future only NOW.

"Perhaps there is no aspect of wild nature more fascinating than a consideration of the artful ways in which birds and animals meet their emergencies. Our human emergencies are of various kinds--social, financial, psychological, physical. But in nature, crises are always associated with physical peril. We are often trying to escape debt, ennui, loneliness, crowds, vauge but mastering fears of the future. Wild creatures probably have no thought of the future; what they try to escape is immediate danger, fraught with the possibility of death.
In my long life in the wilderness woods, in a country especially rich in wild life, I always took an especial interest in watching how children of Nature met their trials; for in their doing so, they often manifested a poise and an ingenuity that disclosed not only a high intelligence, but what appeared to me to be spiritual quality--a ready dauntlessness that is nowise short of valor.
One day I was walking through a stretch of bulrushes. My setter dog had ranged on ahead of me. Suddenly I heard him begin to bark excitedly. Knowing that he had encountered some kind of wild animal. I hurried forward, soon coming to a break in the marsh where there was a deep brackish pond, perhaps an acre in area. Almost halfway across this stretch of placid water an old raccoon was swimming fast. My dog was also swimming, bent on catching the coon. A raccoon, gentle and ingratiating by nature, can be a valiant fighter; and in shallow water he can often defend himself against an ordinary dog. In deep water the coon's chances are not so good.
Just beyond the halfway mark in the pond, to my surprise the raccoon stopped swimming. He had come on a submerged stump or log, the top of which was almost flush with the level of the water. The coon clambered up on this support, shook the water from his coat, turned, crouched, and so waited, facing my setter, that now, with rising hope, appeared to be certain of seizing his prey.
All about me stretched the great lonely marsh. Here before me was this land-locked lagoon. And in the middle of this arena I was about to see enacted a little drama of the wilds. Here two natural enemies were about to meet, one much stronger than the other. Could sagacity, some form of unpredictable strategy, save the day for the weaker of the two antagonists?
When the dog was within three feet of his wary prey, crouching there, as I thought defenseless, the raccoon suddenly thrust forward his little black hands, remarkably human in their shape and in their suggestion of sensitiveness. As soon as the dog was within reach, these hands gently but firmly took hold of my setter's ears, pushed his head under the water, and held him there. My dog made a wild struggle, as I could tell from the way in which his hind legs and tail frantically threshed the water. Just as I was about to wade in to save my setter from being drowned, the raccoon, with a look on his face that seemed to express contempt for inferiority, thrust the dog's head violently downward and away from him. Gasping pitifully, my setter swam painfully back to me, where he lay down on the edge of the pond and whined, confessing failure, and a dread of a further attempt. He was really more disheveled in spirit than in body. We left the wily old raccoon master of that field of honor. He was not smiling sardonically, but his aspect indicated that such was his feeling over my champion's inglorious discomfiture.
It seems to be a law of nature that anything (even a butterfly) will fight as a last resort. But an older law of nature enjoins wild things to evade trouble. After more than half a century of observing American wild life in its native haunts, I should say that we do not have a single bird, animal, or reptile that will normally take an aggressive attitude toward man unless it is cornered, or thinks it is. An exception perhaps should be made of mothers with their young; yet even they will move off into secrecy and hiding if they are not molested. Another exception is the individual, whose behaviour may be abnormal and therefore dangerous, because it is unexpected.
It is amazing how close wild things will lie or crouch, in the hope of being passed by completely. I remember scores of examples of this, but none more surprising than the case of an old turkey gobbler, a superb veteran, I knew, of many narrow escapes.
I had dried and burned off the stubble in one of my big rice fields. There I had turned in a drove of hogs to root it up. All this was to attract Wilson snipe that delight in such softened ground as they bore in the soil for their food. My sons were coming home for the winter holidays, and snipe shooting was a sport they enjoyed.
When the four of us went to the field, the fire and the hogs had done their work well. No cover of any kind remained except a stubborn solitary tussock or marsh near the center of the field. It was hardly big enough to hide a rabbit.
Approaching the field from different sides, two of us began a bombardment on the east, and two on the west. We kept following the snipe. We crossed and recrossed the field, passing many times near the small tuft of marsh, and shooting all around it. Finally, discovering that we had run completely out of shells, we started for the house. Near the middle of the field we came right to the lone tussock. All of us were within ten feet of it, when, to our amazement, a huge wild gobbler suddenly rose from his scant shelter, ran a few paces, and then took flight. Ponderous yet graceful, that flight took him to safety deep in the distant pine forest. For thrilling moments we watched his lessening black bulk against the pale blue sky.
In this case, as in practically all others that have come under my observation, a wild thing in a tight spot always asks, What's safest to do now? And very often the life saving artifice is to do nothing. We had come up to this open field from two sides. The wild turkey had seen us (he always will see a man before the man sees him), and he had forthwith decided to hide where he was. He crouched low by the little tussock; nor did all our fusillade of shots, and our calling to one another make him budge. His strategy was to wait it out. It was only when he saw that we were about to step on him that he moved.
In dangerous straits wild creatures may by no means resort to flight. They dread revealment. They know that an enemy is innocous if they remain unseen. They therefore cultivate silence, skulking, lurking, shadowy avoidance. Assuming a statuesque pose, a deer or a wild turkey will hold it so long that the eyes of a human watcher may grow weary. By doing nothing when they are startled, they appear to be nothing. I remember one day watching the dead top of a fallen tree. I was sure I saw the horns of a deer amid the dry branches, but could not quite distinguish them. After full twenty minutes, during which time the buck had not moved at all, this wary strategist stepped forth. I believe that many intelligent wild things, as this deer did, select cover favorable to camouflage. Thus I have long noticed that wild turkeys, in selecting roosting trees, invariably choose those that have mistletoe in them, or big bunches of moss, or squirrel nests."

Written by: Archibald Rutledge, deceased.

~Courtesy of AOFH~

Readin' His Book: An Excerpt from Archibald Rutledge

 

 

Remember this: Come follow me and you'll end up everywhere.

"Once on a golden autumn morning I was standing with my Negro foreman in the pinelands. He was quite matchless as a woodsman, as good as an Indian of the old days. Before us was a dense bay through which a deer drive was coming. On the still and balmy air the clamor of hounds and of drivers was momently increasing. Suddenly Prince and I saw a regal buck emerge from the dense thicket ahead of us. Rather deliberately he walked out into the open woods, where he came to a stand, facing us. We were about one hundred and fifty yards from him; our backs against two pines. We were standing close together. Whatever air was stirring was from the deer to us. He could not wind us; and as we intended to remain motionless he would not see us.
Behind him all the while the clamor kept increasing. The hounds were on his trail, and were coming fast. Yet there he stood, now and then turning his grand head to listen to the increasing uproar behind him. With all that tumult forcing him forward, he stood calculatingly still. Without moving, I whispered to my foreman, "Prince, why is he standing there like that? Why doesn't he come on?"
"He's readin' his book," the Negro said softly.
That old stag, with a wild hurricane of hunting at his very heels, stood there deliberately, ---"reading his book," mapping his elusive strategy. Before him lay thousands of acres of wild forest, and his obvious course would be to race straight ahead. The speed of the hounds would not trouble him, for no hound living could possibly overtake him; moreover, a master at skulking, he could utterly bewilder the dogs by dodging. But he had in his mind a way of escape that was by no means the obvious way.
A mile behind him lay the great river, beyond which was the vast wilderness of the Delta. There, he knew, was absolute safety for him.
Even as Prince and I watched in admiring amazement the great stag turned, threw up the tall banner of his snowy tail, and raced straight back the way he had come.
"Well, Prince," I said, "he surely read his book."
"And he done find the answer," Prince replied
Here, you see, was a case of subtle strategy, and a decision made even while peril was imminent. That buck thought his way out of danger; and that way of escape is, I believe, the one most commonly used by wild creatures to deliver themselves from death."

Written by: Archibald Rutledge, deceased.

~Courtesy of AOFH~

Angelia Has No Problem Breaking It Down For You.

Remember this: If you don't clean your gun your skeletons will fall out your gun cabinet.

Recently, I visited an elderly man that had two guns out under his shed that he used to shoot nuisance vermin. Both guns were functional but in disrepair. I picked up one and checked it for bullets. Sure enough inside the chamber was loaded. I checked the safety to make sure I don't pull a Barney Pfiff. I walked over to the grapevine he had on a wooden beam and put a couple of shootable cups with pecans up on the flat surface. It had a scope on it so I fired away blowing one cup in two. Seeing how this was an automatic a bullet got stuck inside the chamber without being fed into the bullet's slot so the trigger could execute the hammer and fire the bullet. I looked at the old timer and asked him did he want it fixed or at the very least cleaned. He told me with some nonchalantness to 'do whatever I wanted to it'. Well I did.

I must confess now I am not a trained gunsmith. I am sure there is a gunsmith crying a river of blood right now at the things I did to these two guns. There was also a single shot wonder made in Brazil with the ERA stamped on the side. Truth be told the guns looked like a dusty broom closet where someone would hide a body. I found spiders between the metal and wood, cobwebs, completely rusted out, and the wood was atrocious. I felt a little sullied.

This was the second gun I did an overhaul on. I finally decided to take her apart and clean it good because of the jamming problem with it.

With every gun there will come that point in its life where you got to give it a facelift. The gun is like everything else. If you expose it to the elements for to long it will rust and go to pot. I am not going into the detail of what I did to these guns.

My point here is show your gun some love. It needs cleaning, oiling, bluing, or even stock care.

I have noticed on stocks that carvings in the wood are point of origins for wood splitting. Even if you take the butt off the stock, if there are small metal pins in there to hold the gun butt cover on, a crack can originate from there. Wood stocks have to be cleaned of grime, gun powder, or residue. Re-stain or vanish them to keep the effects of the elements off of them.

Preventative people, preventative.

Most guns aren't shot for years or even picked up. They are stowed away in a locked gun cabinet, hopefully, or God forbid left outside to rust into wrack and ruin.

For the money that is put into the purchase take care of the gun. If you're going to pass it down to the children or another person keep it in pristine shape. It is a family heirloom. I have relatives that have guns from the Civil War.

It is a crying shame when you see a man or woman with a gun from the twentieth century and a gun from the seventeenth century makes it look like trash for the dumping yard. 

Hunters and Huntresses talk about how well they love hunting but the very tool they use is a disgrace even if its functional. Guns are not as the old joke goes "the red headed stepchild" or even the "black sheep of the family". With that said, some people remember the pings and dings of a gun for some monumental period in their history.

Just because its a lowly gun that doesn't cost all that much is no reason to trespass against it and fling it carelessly into the dirt. The Brazilian made single shot gun I worked on I found was made in a barn in Brazil. The company later went bankrupt, changed hands, then eventually was attained by Stoeger and Benelli.

 

That is Providence. Providence is what lends value to things.

What is the history behind it? Maybe its your family history? Anyone now can google and join Ancestry.com to find a tin picture of the very weapon that is mounted over the family fireplace with a picture of the relative. That is how you instill pride in your children and give credence to a gun passed down through the ages to family members. You have to show your children why its of importance so they can see its value even if its just to your future generations.


~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Copyright © 2026 All Rights Reserved.
                                          

 

                                                                  



Does Hunting Need To Be Reformed?

Remember this: Captialism and Hunting are Symbiotic; not the same concept.

Death will never be removed from the making of our food. As the biological system cycles it takes energy to move it, with gains and losses, before renewal. The cycle continues non-stop. To stop is to initiate death but even death is not final for it gives life.

I was reading an essay called Restoring The Older Knowledge by Ted Kerasote from the book, A Hunter’s Heart: Honest: Essays on Blood Sport collected by David Petersen. The question posed as stated, “Is hunting worth reforming?”

So many questions, so little elaboration. I jest.

I looked up the word “worth” as it was the defining word glaring at me angrily from the question. I find that most people, when giving crucial energy for a thoughtful meditation on anything, are ready to give the ax or pardon to use this word as a measurement stick. The Romans just used thumbs up or down. I don’t know if there was a sideways or even a high five but that’s for conjecture.

My constant companion, the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus, stated the meaning as ‘the value of something measured by its qualities.’

As I closed my dictionary, I pondered ever so slightly on what one would pluck out of the mind in words on what those qualities were? What were the peculiar and essential characters? The Nature, ironically, of that spoken word? Better yet, what were its negative attributes that pissed people off?

I thought maybe it wasn’t Hunting itself but the metal the person was made of. People are tempered in different ways given time, quality, and one’s humanity even if well hidden.

I was reading an article called Bear Down: A Field & Stream Adventure on Prince of Wales Island by Steven Rinella. I add this because it was the most recent example of exemplary behavior on the part of a friend and hunter to another person as an act of reform; even if it was on past experience or what people would call a bad hunt. After realizing this, Rinella sets out to reform the previous experience in his friend’s mind that could have possibility marred his outlook on certain categories of hunting and dissuade him from branching out toward becoming a well rounded hunting individual.

Facilitating and renewing his friend’s confidence on the Nature of Hunting to me was a noble act even though some people take to being too humble. Credit to hunting, the individual or something else? Whatever that may be, friendship and hunting benefited in a positive light. Couldn’t this be a positive force across the landscape of hunting itself? Can not hunters find their own sense of decorum and act accordingly? If the individual could cast positive qualities to bring out the very best in others, and the endeavor of hunting, could one potentially reform a negative to a positive position for his fellow hunter both publicly and privately? Would this not be such a quality as hunting needs? Where I come from its called, “Doing right by.” I believe it’s a doable possibility. After consideration, I thought of more definitive terms used to describe hunting.

Even the word sport is negative in its description. Here it might be applied to multi-opposing sides engaging in some combat, game, or test to decide who is the better individual. Some would take it as victor versus loser.

When considering the other words that drive the context of hunting we find recreational situated in the adjectives. Recreation-wise, hunting is an endeavor that give an individual a refreshment of strength or spirit after the work done. Recreation is by far a negative term. In the media and social circles, it is flung around with much disdain to prove someone else’s point even given that the word itself is taken out of context for argumentative gains. This doesn’t necessarily mean that one goes out to discriminate or insult the ideals of hunting for selfish reasons.

In reading, I had to argue the point individual hunters do not ignore, question, or deny the character of its members. If it’s a high profile hunter is shaking his tool at the Establishment, of course he should be questioned on his behavior.

Hunters as a group are not omnipotent with the ability to monitor all of its members for transgressions. This is the same with daily life. Humans aren’t monitored 24/7 for wrong doing. It's left to them to decide on a case per case basis how they carry themselves as citizens of a society, in private or public situations. If they get caught that is a different matter but to apply this behavior as a characteristic solely to hunting is a fallacy. It can be applied to different areas of daily life. To state it is a denial sounds cumulative. If you’re looking at the overall landscape this could be considered true. On the individual level it is not. Another point that was brought up was the appropriate behavior towards wildlife.

One should question appropriate behavior towards animals when exercising the right and privilege to hunt. I remember working at a veterinary hospital where we took wildlife in. Most people weren’t aware of appropriate behavior. Well meaning citizens would remove them from their habitat with no forethought of how the animals were going to be fed, how it felt about being ripped up from its surroundings, or even if it thought someone was doing them a good turn. How is this any contradictory to the same behavior? Either way, I have seen perfectly good wild animals die because of this behavior. This is usually a slow gruesome death. They starve, for lack of food, abandoned without learning how to be wild, or domesticated in a refuge.

When laid out in comparison the acts may look different but the outcome will be the same. Something will suffer for it or die.

Again there is life. Should one not look toward the bright star that shines rather than the darkened places? Darkened places eventually see the rays of illumination even if it is briefly.

My personal experiences have over the years brought me to an understanding on that which moves through the body and mind. I like to refer to it as Essence or Soul. There is something significant in the body of an animal when it is alive. It may not have higher mental faculties as defined by man but still something profane lies within the makings of that which we chase. This is realized by awareness, sight, contact, and familiarity.

When you have your hands on something that is alive you know it's there and can enjoy the fact that you know it's aware of your presence; see the recognition it perceives through your contact by touching it without harm. It is a wonderful feeling. Whether the wild knows this is a mute issue. At that point it is all about you and your feelings where human contact with wildlife is evident. There is no loss only gain even if psychological on the part of the human.

In that moment, you don’t have the burden of responsibility. The animal even though it may be untrusting could be imprinted with the idea that there is no threat from the human. How this affects the animal later depends on how long the contact goes on and the quality of the contact. Many a wild animal has been spoilt by this, but equally have benefited.

Overall, it’s the connection you made to the animal while alive that lingers. On a different landscape, when hunting the outcome is different.

As you hunt, you may be several feet away and quite disconnected from the energy moving through the body of a living creature where there is death forth coming. Once you initiate the death note of the animal when you walk over, unless it doesn’t die suddenly, as this brings about suffering, there is no more energy left of it to be considered alive; warm and departed. There is a feeling of loss and grief. Even though this is momentary, it exists and is a milestone in reverence for the life because it meant something to you. The burden of responsibility of its death doesn’t become as empty as the body after the Essences leaves it. It's not just a bag of bones. Where does this stand in the way of hunters behaving badly?

Debasing hunter ethics doesn’t take a village. It only takes several well positioned individuals that make bad decisions in situations that could eventuate in a public outcry against the ritual itself. I reiterate the words bad decisions.

If hunters set the image then does it not need an overhaul?

I would say yes. To address others' reasonable outcries, but also to elevate it above the aggressions of non-hunters. More so, as an individual personal sense of pride in what we do. Self reflecting on the act of hunting itself is what motivates hunters to participate in the ritual of hunting. Hunters do not strive to debase the pursuit of food but transverse our inflection of what it means for hunters to be a part of Humanity.

Amongst non-hunters, hunting has become much like the gun shot during hunting season when bears consider it a dinner bell. People that are against the way in which the animal dies as extremists flock to this full of aggression. There is no intention on engaging in a conversation on something they quite frankly care little about. Not that all non-hunters are equal in that respect so this is another commonality that they have with hunters.

I quote Kerasote as saying, “It is often said that hunters hunt to return to a world of origins, simplicity, and honest interaction with nature. But when you look at hunters, especially bow hunters, in the pages of sporting magazines, in the equipment catalogs, and in the woods, they look like a cross between Darth Vader and a commando. If you go to one of the annual trade shows that display new outdoor equipment, a hundred people a day will try to sell you a new hearing aid, a new camouflage pattern, a new scent, cartilages, or bow that will improve your chances of getting game, and too few hunters question the replacement of skill and intuition by gadgets.” (Petersen 288)

After reading this, I thought to myself, the above statement is being confused with capitalism because capitalism is using hunting as another area in which to stick its fingers and make money.

To live man needs money. That is the ugly albatross around our necks and we put it there. Trade shows are capitalist tools to make money for business. Most of the time when you are attending one of these shows, education comes from governmental agencies or non-profits that want to promote Hunting, not merchandise. Merchandise is only a tool or trapping used in hunting, depending on the hunter’s discretion, at using what ever merchandise or new technology he wishes to purchase.

It's not hunting.

A good salesman is only as valuable as his ability to coerce you into believing that what he has is something you can’t live without. Capitalism confuses the Art of Hunting and works as a symbiotic presence that lives off of its host for as long as it can without totally destroying it. Once again, another area that must be clearly defined.

Hunting consists of levels that the individual has to transcend up through to get to the purity of the Art of Hunting, everything else is a trapping.

I personally believe there are activities in hunting that do not make sense. They are no more than games, like one would see at a high school carnival, to get others into participation. By doing this, it is a dishonest means of getting others involved, if it shapes their first impressions of what hunting is.

Shaping a person’s initial impressions should be the top priority in the Art of Hunting itself. Children must take baby steps but you wouldn’t want them to go out and shoot something before their mind can grasp the concept as an adult would. There are ways of handling things and situations; there are ways not to. This should be clearly defined as well. This is mostly left up to the parent, but depending on the adults upbringing, the same bad or good habit, could be passed along quite innocently because that’s how my family has always done it.

I observed hunting never needed reform but the behavior of hunters is worth reforming for the sake of the art and the individual. This essay was probably done around the year 1996, much has changed as some things have stayed the same.

I believe the Art of Hunting can return to the utilitarian, subsistence, and spiritual place that gave it value to start with in cultures, traditions, and society, if not on a group level but more so on an individual level. For hunting to have value, we must reform it back into the specifics of the esteem it was founded on.

Writer credits: Angelia Y. Larrimore

~Couresy of the AOFH~

The Nocturne of the Lightless Night.

Remember this: Cut the lights out. You'll see more.

Tonight I walked outside of the house to retrieve my rifle from the truck. I looked up at the stars but there was this nagging light coming from my peripheral vision. It would seem that the night sky is no longer a little brighter in the country because the city has come a-calling. 

At night there are seven security lights that stay on all night long at the abutting park. They never go off and come on just as the sun is rising or setting. I look down the road and all the neighbors have security lights. I wonder if they are afraid of burglars? The most I have is some soft solar runway lights that come on well after dark. I love looking up at the stars and the milky way. I can't imagine not having a world with that in it. Nor do I wish to have to buy a ticket one day on one of Branson's space ships so I can take a gander either. It just wouldn't be the same.

• Is it really necessary to have that much light polluting up the night?
• Are people that afraid?
• Can you kill the stars visually?
• What implications does it incur on wildlife and their habits?
• Do you really need lights all over your yard to showcase your house?
• Do you really need that security light on in an empty lot where no house stands?

No matter what the light source, it can affect wildlife in very inappropriate ways.

Humans have forced, coerced, and chosen to become diurnal mammals. Diurnal mammals cycle in a pattern that occurs every 24 hours as a result of one full rotation of the Earth.  People are  biased to the daylight and depend on visual cues because of this distortion to our nature. Jobs at varying times of the day, partying to much at night, and other vices perpetuate this bad habit and will brings about poor mental and physical health. Eventually you see this habit play out as the night becomes an artificial day. These ever growing habits affect the very animals that we love to hunt and the beautiful symphony of the worlds of day and night. What is a nocturne you ask?

A nocturne is a musical composition that is inspired by the evocation of night. As hunters,  we know that when night falls on certain game animals, we must abruptly stop hunting them until the next day. On the other hand there are game animals that are hunted solely at night for that is their habitation. This musical composition of hunting weaves itself all through our endeavors and hits its high notes when we finally make contact with our stalk. From the moment the Sun rises and trades places with the Moon, a musical composition of sorts is playing itself out. While we sit in our offices and make our daily bread somewhere out in the world a buck, bear, or duck is making the daily rounds in its life. Plants are filtering light to photosynthesis while decomposers are recycling the world and the energy that is never lost. Everything comes back as something even if it seems like nothing.

 
In order for animals or people to function there must be so many hours of light and dark. The more we change the natural landscape where light and dark is master, the more we influence the wildlife and ourselves.

 
Have you ever made a trip to the doctor only to find the treatment is to change your lifestyle?

 
Your physical functioning, behavior, reproduction, and immune system depends of the night and day cycle. Even thought humans do not need the night for survival there are wildlife that do. Take the sea turtle for example. It depends on the night for survival otherwise its off-spring would get confused and go into circles instead of the sea. This is a form of disorientation that can also be noted in migratory waterfowl. Humans change the outside world to accommodate our needs even if what we think is a need is more of a want or luxury. The ramifications of that change is sometimes subtle or very evident. What we consider our advancements would be considered a devastation in the natural world.  A season's photo period is the only consistent factor in the natural environment.

Areas that are affected by artificial light are:

• Reproduction i.e. mating out of season
• Communication between specie members
• Disorientation that leads to altering survival paths
• Fixation
• Degradation of habitat
• Energy Waste
• Premature blooming or ceasing to bloom
• Population declines
• Starvation i.e. interfering with prey/predator relationships
• Forming unnecessary feed concentrations around artificial light
• Artificial light can deter normal wildlife and remove them from normal areas
• Low light nocturnal animals can be compromised by illumination can alter survival strategies
• Inhibit normal Anti-predation behavior
• Variances in hunting quality

Animals usually have set times when they browse, drink water, feed, and sleep. When the sun is receded into the West and depending on the Moon, if light is available they are more likely to move about. You can pen this down like a teenager that stays up all night having a party but sleeping most of the day. At some point the wildlife wake up and have to drink or feed.

 
Wildlife chases the moon much like a sailor at sea. Their paths are determined to a point by the reflection of the moon and starlight. Daylight varies through out the year and so does moon light. The phases of the moon dictate a slow building up and occluding of its beams into the eyes of the wild. It is never abrupt. Even the sun creeps across the sky as the forest's trees shade the hotter parts of the day.

I once saw an example of light fixation in a Merlin falcon. I was walking around at night when I heard this knocking noise in the side of a Roanoke tobacco barn. I remember the full moon was shining up in the sky making everything very visible. After getting some leather gloves, I went over to investigate because it sounded like a bird was in trouble. There I found a Merlin trying to fly up into the side of the barn wall. The barn wall itself was a silver color which fooled the Merlin into thinking it was an open space to fly. Here in reflective surfaces where light played off confused the Merlin. I caught the bird then turned him free after a meal of raw venison the next morning after making sure it wasn't harmed.

Things that you can do to minimize artificial light:

• Buy a gun or start a community watch if you're afraid someone is doing criminal activity.
• Stop being so proud of your home and turn out the lights.
• Purchase sensory lights that come on and go off with a timer.
• Turn off unnecessary lights. You'll probably save money and sleep better.
• Get fully shielded fixtures
• Try using red or yellow lights. Wildlife chase the moon so red light doesn't reflect like the moon or draw curiosity. Yellow light doesn't attract as much insects.
• Educate yourself and others. Raise awareness not controversy or discord. Remember you are doing this for wildlife, yourself, and hunting in general.

As hunting sportsmen, we must make allowances for our quarry. This change in light can alter the natural patterns to make the stalk too simple or confusing. We must be ambassadors to everyone when it comes to educating people on the 'minor details' that can affect the sport. There are many controversies in hunting but the simpler ones you should be able to have an effect on.
Turn out the lights.


~Courtesy of AOFH~

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