Bird Camp Diaries: September 2007
The Bird Camp Diaries are nothing more than whimsical monthly musings. I hope you find them entertaining, and sometimes thought provoking.
Staring Down the Barrel of a Tornado
We've all seen a lot of things while hunting, but until last fall, I'd never hunted in a tornado.
I was invited to the Pheasants Forever board of directors meeting in September of 2007 in South Dakota to train the board on effective media relations. It just so happened that it was also early goose season in the state. We couldn't pass that up, so despite temperatures in the high 80s and humidity that felt more like Florida, a few of us enlisted a local guide and set up layout blinds and decoys on the downside of a cut cornfield.
For about an hour, we sat there, without a bird in the sky - not a goose, not a pheasant, not even a sparrow. Then, about 10 miles off to our west, we noticed some clouds building - and building - and building. Pretty soon, one of the guys said "Hey, I've never seen one before, but isn't that a funnel cloud?" Then another guy said "Yeah, I think so, and isn't that a wall cloud over there?" Then a third guy said "Hey, isn't that a tornado over there?"
After about 5 minutes of debate, we decided the best thing to do was to sit tight, in our layout blinds, and wait it out - figuring that any attempt to get to safer ground would have a reverse effect. We watched the whole system pass through about 5 miles away from us, hunted the rest of the evening, and then went back to the lodge to tell our story.
The guys back at the lodge were relieved to see that we were okay. While we had a great story to tell, I mentioned that we were disappointed that we didn't get any geese. To that, Howard Vincent replied "Well, of course not, you idiot. Even a goose knows enough not to go out in a tornado!"
- As told to PF by Matt Kucharski of Padilla Speer Beardsley, a national public relations & marketing firm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
- Photos courtesy of Greg Smith
Remember, if you have story ideas, dog photos and requests for future On The Wing consideration, please send correspondence to ahauck@pheasantsforever.org.
If you have story ideas, dog photos, pre-1980 hunting photos and requests for future On The Wing consideration, please send correspondence to ahauck@pheasantsforever.org.
Return to On The Wing: September 2007"On The Wing" Archive
- On the Wing: July 2008
- On the Wing: June 2008
- On the Wing: May 2008
- On the Wing: April 2008
- On the Wing: March 2008
- On the Wing: February 2008
- On the Wing: January 2008
- On the Wing: December 2007
- On The Wing: November 2007
- On The Wing: October 2007
- On The Wing: September 2007
- On The Wing: August 2007
- On The Wing: July 2007
- On The Wing: June 2007
- On The Wing: May 2007
