Ribeye In The Sky

It is almost futile to describe to my fellow Elk Grovians the wondrous waterfowl we had have here in this area.

I spent seven hours out at the Stone Lakes Wildlife Refuge today, primarily to kill ducks and geese, but secondly, to observe things that 99.893% of this city's inhabitants have never seen, don't care about seeing, and will never see. There is a tremendous heritage of natural beauty around this city of mine that is being destroyed daily, through the relentless march of economic progress -- the building of low-density suburban slums from Sacramento to Galt. A total waste.

This morning, in my blind here in Elk Grove, I saw 4,500 speckle belly geese, 35 mallards, 55 sand hill cranes, 25 honkers, 4 snow geese, 780 cormorants, 7 otters, an entire blackening of the sky with starlings, 35 American white pelicans, and a few thousand various swallows, blackbirds, and other unknown birds. I would have liked to take a honker like this one from two weeks ago:

This bird. I took its flesh while I respected its soul. If you find this offensive, well, piss off. I have a much higher affinity for our animals than most, and that counts for much more than buying bologna at the WINCO. I only take what I eat, and I only take what's given. It's hunting...not shooting. I spent three days over the last five trying to get birds but I shot nothing.

I am personally at odds, sincerely, with how the building of my own suburban house contributed to the destruction of this sort of wildlife. I opined in my first sentence what my Elk Grovian neighbors think of all this -- they couldn't give a rat's ass about any of it, so long as their roads aren't congested, so long as gas is cheap, and so long as their sprawl economy continues unabated. This comes from personal interaction with my neighbors. Not a one has any understanding of what their suburban enclaves and asphalt has taken from what's been here for 230,000 years.

Perhaps this post can offer some insight into what we (my co-worker Joe and I) saw this morning, and how special an occasion it was. It was the most impressive thing I've ever seen in Elk Grove, in my fifteen years in this city (or near it, to be clear). From our blind, just over the cottonwoods, we could hear the sandhill cranes coming. A group of eleven:They emerged from the tree line and flew not twenty feet above our blind. We could see the whites of their eyes, their redheads, their heads scanning back and forth, their bodies flying in perfect sync. They looked like 747's they were so big. I understand in Texas they are hunted -- they are considered ribeye's in the sky, their meat is so valued. Here in Elk Grove, all hunting is banned after 12:00 PM because this is prime sandhill habitat.

You cannot, and will never, understand the poignancy of such an event unless you get out there and see this for yourself. Take the time and the effort to get out to the Consumnes preserve and witness this for yourself. As an Elk Grovian, I am totally ashamed of what my city is doing to destroy this last refuge of the last undammed river in Northern California, the Consumnes river. I am a hunter, yes...but a preservationist first.