Loons

Story

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The following is an excerpt from “Undercover Wildlife Agent”

The following research article gives insight to the story–

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James A Rose–interviewed by Connie Mason’s part of the Cape Lookout Oral History project (a related excerpt)—

Federal agents that just stormed Shackleford, one particular morning, there were a number of tickets written. Some of them, they managed to get out of it—course if you did have a loon anywhere nearby you, you were just sightseeing, you know. With a gun. You were sightseeing with a gun.
Well, Delmar Willis had bought a brand new 12-gauge gun and he saw the men way up the beach there, coming towards him, and he said, “My god, I’m going to be locked up forever.” He takes that brand new 12-gauge, sticks her down in the mud and puts his foot on it and shoves it right on down. And he’s standing on the butt plate of the new, brand new 12 gauge when the man walks up to him and Delmar says, “You know what, all this is unnecessary.” He says, “I can’t understand why they want to eat and shoot these loons, that’s not right, to kill these birds like this.” And the man says, “You got a good point there, but we’re gonna have to do something with this.” So he said, “Well, look, you have a good day,” and whatever, you know. And they just left and went on walking past. He’s still standing there on the butt plate of that brand new 12-gauge, brand new, gas-operated, automatic 12-gauge shotgun. He stayed there till everybody was gone, he stayed right there in the same place, looking on, you know, like he was distraught and this was bad, this is really bad, killing all those loons. Told the agent, “This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen,” and he got away with what he was doing. He just hadn’t been in action yet, you know. But he finally got the gun out?

Decoys

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Although loons do not “decoy” to decoys, local carvings of full-sized and miniature loons reside in homes as a remembrance of the tradition.

The Core Sound Decoy Carvers Guild holds an annual Loon Day competition, auction, and community feed in early May staying connected with regional tradition.

Credits

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The Last Loon Hunt—James F. Guthrie—The Mailboat—Annual Edition, 1993


Biological, Geological, and Cultural Origins of the Loon Hunting Tradition in Carteret County,  North Carolina—Olson, Loftin and Goodwin—The Wilson Journal of Ornithology—122(4); 716-724, 2010


Cape Lookout Oral History Project—James A. Rose, interview by Connie Mason


Undercover Wildlife Agent—The casebook of conversation officer Robert O. Halstead—
James H. Phillips


Island Born and Bred—Karen Anspacher—1987—United Methodist Women, Harkers Island— cookbook excerpt