Did you ever go snipe hunting as a kid?
It seems like snipe hunting is a rite of passage from little kid to pre-teen. In fact, snipe hunting was such an incredible memory for my husband, he couldn’t WAIT to take our kids snipe hunting.
The time seemed right years ago when the boys had a sleepover with 4 of their closest friends. The older kids were in the third grade and the little guys in Kindergarten. We were sitting outside by a bonfire and my husband got the great idea to take the kids on a snipe hunting adventure. ALL of the boys could hardly contain their excitement. Jumping, screaming and giving high fives, they followed my husband into the house to gather the snipe traps… Target bags.
Like ducklings in a line behind the mother, the boys followed my husband into the dark. My hubs told the boys that snipes nest in trees, they gathered around our giant arborvitae tree.
It’s not lost on me that NONE of them asked what a snipe was. They didn’t ask any details they just fell in line with wonder. My hubs told them they have to close and open their bag while saying, “snipe snipe” and if they are lucky enough they’ll catch one! Each of them pointed their bag toward the tree, opening it and closing it while saying the magic word. This went on for a few minutes before my husband put his hand in his bag, swinging his arm around and said, “I caught one!”.
Most of the boys were AMAZED and couldn’t wait to see the creature, my oldest though… he bolted faster than the Flash inside the house and shut the door behind him. He hid until I came in and found him telling him it was a joke.
Fast forward six or so years. While we don’t hunt birds, we do own chickens. Because their outer coup area is pretty small for six large hens we let them roam the fenced in back yard. I don’t know how, but the first 2 weeks we let them out of their coup those bitches figured out how to escape our fenced in yard by finding holes in the fence we didn’t even know existed!
On two separate occasions our neighbors tried to get them back inside our fence. Luckily we have found their prison escape plan and sealed it up.
We thought…
In case you don’t know, IF they are given enough time to acclimate to their roosting environment, chickens will make their way to their house before the sun sets. They will roam during the daylight hours and go back to the roost at dusk. Because we have a wolf who has a taste for chickens, we always go and count the ladies before putting the lock on the door.
Every day like clock work, the dusk comes and the chickens kennel themselves up. One of us will go out with a flashlight, count the cuddled up ladies and put the lock on the door before we let the wolf out.
One wine night, our eldest went to lock the ladies up and he only counted THREE. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, one of our ladies previously died and one had escaped and couldn’t find her way back before bedtime and something probably ate her. But that night we SHOULD have had FOUR.
My husband, our eldest and I were walking around our back yard trying to see if the missing gal was roosting in one of our trees. We thought maybe it got too dark too fast and she decided to roost??
We’re following each other, only one of us had a flashlight, the others have wine glasses and we’re calling to her and trying to listen for those odd chicken sounds.
While we thought we heard her just outside of the fence, the sound of the fallen leaves crunching under our feet was too loud to really know. We decided to let Wolfie out, since she didn’t find the missing lady and start plucking feathers out like she did when she caught my parents neighbor’s chicken we figured she got of the fence.
My husband convinced my oldest that she was a goner. A nighttime snack to the nocturnal predators. The forever optimist in me thought she found a safe roost and she’d come back in the daylight.
The next morning, Wolfie was anxious and speaking more than usual. I looked outside and wouldn’t you know our lady returned unscathed! She was outside of the fence, looking in, trying to get back to her besties. Because of the previous escape attempts I spent some time training the ladies. I had been giving them snacks and treats after I call, “HEY LADIES” now they come running to me to eat the snacks.
With bread in had, that lady followed me to her friends and they were ALL happy to be reunited.
The next weekend my husband and I met some friends for dinner. I was telling them about our previous Friday wine night and how searching for the missing chicken felt a LOT like snipe hunting as a kid.
After I finished the story my friends boyfriend commented on how he thought it was funny how many people believe that snipes weren’t real.
Ummm… they’re real?
I told him I’d always assumed a snipe was a mythical bird but he told us they were real. And wouldn’t you know, Dr. Google proved it. He said that he’s seen many snipes in real life before, they live by water. I couldn’t help but wonder what else I’ve known to be a myth that is actually true. What other folklores and tall tales are believable?
Maybe it’s only a matter of time before everything is debunked!
In the meantime, IF you decided to take anyone snipe hunting I’m pretty sure a Target bag and saying “snipe” would not catch one; but then again, I just found out snipes are real so who really knows!
Namaste,
Jes xoxo