Around Thanksgiving, the Whistlers or Tundra Swans (Cygnus Columbianus sp) descend to the Great Basin. In Canada, while hunting waterfowl, they migrate in family flocks usually two all white parents with two or more grayish juveniles. By the time they reach Nevada they have grouped, still in their primitive state and easy to decoy. In Nevada we are allowed take one with a tag which must be immediately ID by a conservation officer. If a trumpeter is harvested, the season is suspended.
The Stillwater Valley near Fallon is an ancient basin that use to stretch across the Mountain Island Valleys Newlands Irrigation Project diverted Carson River to the thirsty Alfalfa fields. Ironic that most of Nevada's Alfalfa is exported to Californian. Stillwater is near where the first Pre-Colombian duck decoy was discovered as a tulle reed canvasback. These migration path are thousand of years old and are driven by iron laden nerves cells embed within the central nervous system. Magnetic fields guide these iron based cells of these giant birds as they align during North to South and return migration. These patterns are magnetically set and this epigenetic event is passed parents to offspring.
We set out a few white decs and within an hour a lone mature birds swings by and a single shot with bismuth from my 1947 Winchester "DUCK" Model 21 brings down our Thanksgiving diner.
