Page Two
THE DARE COUNTY TIMES
PHOTOGRAPHING SNOW GEESE
IN THE DARE COUNTY REFUGE
The Story of Ben Dixon MacNeiM’s Adventures With
Quicksands and Weather in Making Pictures ,
of These Birds in Dare County
By Ben Dixon MacNeill in “The News and Observer.”
had been .squandered in purposeless
pursuit of these noisesome and fan
tastically vigilant creatures that
never let you get nearer than one
mile of them on the ground and
that can out-fly any airplane from
which photography is at all feas-
jible. There had to be an end to it
I some time and Del Thomas had
I seen a crippled specimen on Pea
1 Island the day before: we might
!run that one down and make it
pose.
I There is, literally, not a photo-
i.- j • • > graph of a Snow Goose in existence
Del Thomas continued in opti- Here and there along the Outer anywhere. Even the National Geo-
mism. Five minutes before time Banks you strike quick-sand when graphic Society, with all its re
fer Toby Tillett to start his nine-' the water covers the flats. Just sources and indefatigable determi
thirty trip across Oregon Inlet, and small areas of it, not mqre_than a nation, had recourse to a drawing
likely the sun would stand stock j dozen feet across, but nonetheless when it issued Dr. Grosvenor’s
still and wait for him if Toby Til-1 quicksand. This was a very limit- magnificent book lon American
lett omitted to start his trip on ed area of it, not wide enough to, birds. Often enough Drinkwater
time—we were a good three Outer , - . _
wheels of the vehicle. We were I failure with “You know demed well
settled down until the rear hubs | a thing that eats .sandspurs is
were submerged in sand and there. ashamed to let you take its pic
were ten inches of water above j ture. . . . Thing for you to do is
that. We were in the middle of get you a mess of sandspurs and
Banks miles from the ferry and
these sort of miles are not done in
three to the five minutes. Not of
ten anyway.
To be sure the last mile and a
half of it is across the fiats and if
there’s no water on the fiats, you
can make sixty miles an hour.
More than that—or less, if your
vehicle has seen better than a hun
dred thousand miles and a good
part of them along the Outer
Banks. There was some basis for
Del Thomas’ optimism.
Except that we had not consider
ed the direction of the wind. The
wind was out of the northwest, and
. - , - where, practically waiting beside ^
accommodate both front and back'has co.mforted me after another the road for you to take their pic-lj^to brought almost
tn,.cc. — 4.I.' . in o contact with them.
about a hundred acre field of water.
The co.mforting thing about Pro-
eat ’em and then you’ll know better
how to go about it. . . . ”
Del Thomas had been much more
vidence is that it never loses its helpful. He comes from Pitt
sense of perspective: What we
needed must at the moment was
something to hoist the stern of the
vehicle out of the sand and water,
a pole about ten feet long, and a
block upon which to rest it while
we hoisted. Providence had ar
ranged it very nicely some while
there were nine inches of very salty when a ship was wrecked and
and very cold water on the flats, ashore not more than' a hun-
It looked like it might have beenl^^®*^ yards from where we were
as deep as the ocean, but along the 11oundeded, and so arranged the
Outer Banks you just pitch in and
see what happens. It was not so
long in happening: barrels of water
giot up under the hood and the mo
tor just quit.
Still Del Thomas continued in op
timism. He said let her drain a
minute and we’ve still got two min
utes to .make the ferry. Jhe clouds
would keep the sun from knowing
if Toby waited for us and we’d
make itT And Toby did wait for a
of
wreckage that some timbers
portable size were loosened.
And after .all, extricating your
self from quick-sand in the middle
of a hundred-acre lake itsn’t any
job to be writing a half column
about. Besides, this is a piece about
taking pictures of the most elusive
bird in the world, the same being
these fabulous Snow Geese which
spend their summers in the north
of Greenland and their winters on
Pea Island or thereabouts feasting
full five minutes, there not being
any other passengers on this side on sand spurs,
and it was boo misty for seeing! This was next to the last day
whether there was anybody waiting that I proposed to fool with them,
over there or not. ' By now the better part of a month
County, belongs to the CCG and is
attached to one of the sections that
is fashioning a stupendous refuge
for the Biological Survey on Pea
Island, impounding a great lake of
fresh water that will grow all sorts
of grass for all sorts of wild fowl.
Last summer Dr. Bartsch had
found 43 species of birds nesting
thereabouts.
This lad has been so long on Pea
Island that he knows the useages
of all the things that inhabit it,
even as winter tourists. AH the
old Canada geese know him and he
can walk among them, and ducks
and swan don’t bother with him.
Now and then he has- been right
close to .some of the fabulous Snow
Geese, and he thought that maybe
if we took a Sunday off down there,
we might get in range of them.
Watching them every day, he had
a pretty good idea of how they op
erated. Like most wild fowl afifl
all sensible aviators, they took off
into the wind, and if there was not
much wind, they had some little
difficulty in gaining altitude. They
take off into the wind, and if they
are agitated, they turn and fly with
it, adding the strength of the wind
to the strength of their wings and
not bothering about altitude until
they had got up some speed.
Of course, there was never any
knowing what they’d do once they
got into the air. Like as not they
would fly out to sea, or across Pam
lico Sound, or, if they felfif-llf^e it,
climb rapidly and make like they
were headed for Greenland or back
Bay or somewhere. There is just
never any telling what a flock of
Snow Greese will do I have
I timed them flying at 110 miles an
I .hour—but that was lon another
campaign against them, and that
morning they headed straight for
I Bermuda or somewhere beyond the
12-mile limit.
Anyhow, we’d just take the day
below The Inlet and try to sneak
up on them. If they went away,
we’d hide and wait for them to
come hack—and maybe luck would
change. .... And here we were
two feet down in quicksand and the
inexorable Toby gone with his ferry
and two hours before he’d be going
again, and that would make it the
middle of the day and this north-
west wind was bringing ram near-1 time as the senior warden indicated
er Already there were drifts of it that they should fly, and so lost in
before we got thought hoisting our-.the mist that it would be no use
selves out of the bog of sand wasting film on them. I stopped
N
Economic Data on North Carolina
'M llllimTn;®.
II
, down the lens another stop to
While we were waiting we’d as sharpen the focus. They were just
well go back up there to the light-, planning to dribble out of the pic-
house and take a crack at them. ture.
There were three or four hundred' Thpv a v,
of them idling anound there, and j nroceede^Tth
we might slip up on them. . . That, o/Nanoleon.V
got there the other aftemo^rjJIu^rden preposterous
before sundown, with Snow Geese Tack "f me
against the lighthouse, they were fuf sifuanl ih. h
pretty good, Del Thomas thought. tehicTe anr^n ^^r^ i”’”'^’'!
But not goiod enough. It had to thev went ratha
be as good as, well as good as we ^ tL air And thar*"
could get anywhere we-wanted it. At anv rate bera was that.
of Canada geese They were every-1 ^°'««thing.
5 IIMIIIIlffl^
"■ III!) I lll-nigr
— ii"i I ii'rvg'
TrTTTrfhJ*.
riimoffla
Hirrrgrjs
kTnrg^
!■ UFT 52: >25
W TTT>7 C7 trig
Columns of coins represent brewers’ annual expenditures in
North Carolina, together with the
tion of beer consumed In
value of beer and ale sold in the state.
Of $9,380,000 to North CaroU^
Ain’t you afraid you’ll break your | contrive^Whl^ la r n
kodak?” And of course nobodyitK daTlie7iflh
ev„ Witt taking: w,™ ^
went and sat down in Pamlico
Sound about a mile off shore tucked
their heads under their wings and
m began their Sunday nap. . . .^Del
of them.
Yonder, Del Thomas stated, was
something he had not seen before.
There was a lone Snow Goose
with a flock of 300 Qanadas. He 1 Thomas said tiaot ,,1,4 j j
looked, to me, a little sheepish, like qj. rather what I tippH
h. might h.™ tallan . a»ky tj
motions of flight, thought better of thmgs^was an airplane.
it and settled uneasily while the nr , , ,
Canada geese contemplated us sol- j u Probably no. That
emnly. It looked like, anyhow, we!^ bad already tried. They are es-
mig.ht get something. We were only i P®oially allergic to airplanes, and
50 yards away. | minute they hear one start
Without any further ado the ^ Roanoke Island
Snow Goose loosed a scandalous campaign,
honking and hoisted himself out ofi surging circles, pro-
the grass . j ceeding somewhat like a hurricane.
The Canada geese hesitated a|center, shifting
little, and decided that they’d as'^^T so rapidly that it is
well go, too. So they all went over;
to the other side of the pond and i “'^'css you creep up
settled down. The Snow Geese flew! them, they are likely to outfly
with twice the speed of his dark,j^°^; .
distant relatives. . . . Undoubted-!., .° living has seen more of
ly, they are the swiftest waterfowl; a Driskill who
known to these regions. i Fairchild Freighter for the
They were not, or this one was'Sf'tlrle
not, absolutely white. The tips of fena-h of Thl ^ Tl- ^ t
their wings are black. And while
probably equal.ying the Canada! ^ntTons ^ "“i^b e m\\t^^^
=7&Z’ “"soS"; •»”»»« p
TV,!;.. rxff • landing* in some open flat
swifter, and their flight mare acro^ ^''of ^and unburden
batic. They lack the stateliness of k^has to bTrL;^ A T if'
the Canada goose, and their massed i L^wolSrowTow
nights are not done with the order--l-t-rt • 4.
Pd p,.eisl.p of bl.ck gpeoe. Th,,'S,3XrG„»T.nd '
flyonanarrower front, in long, gure, he’d be glad to take a
^"dlerack at it. Go right after dinner.
?he worl^ to^ snow geese in.He’d been to Ocracoke that mom-
. . . . But that was the next day. beside the mast from which he
from time to time displays weather
NNUAL business volume esti
mated at $9,380,000 has been
developed and maintained In North
Carolina by the legalized beer busi
ness and most of this volume Is
reflected directly In the state by
employment, payrolls and taxes, ac
cording to an analysis by the United
Brewers Industrial Foundation,
based on latest official statistics.
North Carolina consumed ap
proximately 268,000 barrels of beer
In 1938 Production of this quantity
used 294,000 bushels of premium
malting barley, 46,400 bushels of
corn, 27,400 bushels of rice and
166,160 pounds of hops, based on
national averages for farm materi
als necessary In brewing. An area
of 13,530 acres was utilized to grow
these materials with full-time em
ployment for 464 farm workers.
Far greater employment was cre
ated through processing these ma
terials and stimulation of activities
In all fields servicing the brewing
industry and retail outlets.
Federal and state treasuries were
among the major beneficiaries from
North Carolina’s beer consuiof^
The state collected $872,598.
sive of license fees, for the " C,
while the Federal governinei’* Itj
ceived approximately $1,340.0'^ Jj|,j
$5 per barrel. Much of this ^, 'll)!
was returned to the state tbf*’ J(jj
Federal appropriations. j lely
Brewers’ expenditures for
materials, supplies, equipmen*.
fuel In the production of beer , , '
sumed In North Carolina
$1,500,000. This compared ^'L
national brewery payroll of L
340,229 for 1937 and $201.9»^
expended for materials, etc. , it.
While beer retailers were
mediate gainers, additional ‘J j
ficlarles Included real estate,
labor, food purveyors, buildW?. ijj
maintenance and various raib^
tions of local business. Ret**^
gains were measured not oD)f|
their beer volume but also bf, ^ ^
additional business stiffl"’*''-^’'
through sales of related iteir’*
III
signals. He
THH ENTIRE COST OF THE CC.C.
k
W'
■3:
COULD BE PAID FOR BY
tCQ.
THE TAXES
OF THE
BREWI no-
industry!
'The Treasury Department shows expenditures of 326 million dollars
for the Civilian Conservation Corps for the fiscal year of 1938.
The brewing industry pays over a million dollars a day in taxes.
., J , - = — ran up a forbidding
01 uSy grazing in tn© shsl- collGction of vari-liiipH flno-a fViQt ^ a. j ^
]nw of fiio tixof , - ! j. ^ags that in- morrow, or the next day, I may try
low part of the pond that half-, dicated that presently all sorts of " ‘ . . .
encircles Oregon Inlet light there! weather would break hereabouts,
were maybe 500 of them, .all told, j Northwest storm warnings. They
The road was 100 yards east of the , are bad. Small craft warnings,
pond, and from the nearest of the. They are forbidding things. There
geese. Infervening there was tall wa? nowhere m the firmament any
grass, brown and limp in the thick-1 sign of a cloud anff so we bantered
ening mi,?t, Del Thomas said that,'Drinkwater ~
if we could crawl through the grass] -Ain’t seen the weather report,
. In ’ '"'^^Vut the orders says run ’em up'
waY I “You’ll see some weather in
was some discussion among the >he next few hours ”
grazing snow geese as to what it Wp trnf o -4 •4x-
might portend. Some of them flap-;half an hour after we had clTlbed
ped their wings and others honked.'to 4,500 feet. We were still climb-
Apparently they decided that the^i„g.’ We’d geV hTgh enLgh to
dilapidated vehicle, recently exca- throttle the motor down to where
we’d play with ’em. He opened the
throttle and the ship swooped. All
the Snow Geese in the wiorld rose
as one goose and began maneu
vering. First they split themselves
into two equal companies and set
out to spread confusion.
There was no out-maneuvering
them, though Driskill ably circled
them, herded them together and
swooped. . . . The picture will
•have to tell the story. It seems bo
be about as good as anybody can
do, without the assistance of two
or three miracles. . . . Del Thomas
came by a little while ago to see
how the pictures turned out. He
said, with kindly intent, that they
were pretty good, but maybe we
could do better. How would it be
to ... well, it would do. I’m
through with Snow Geese, and to-
cheese and other farm pro
crackers, relishes, salads,
meats and various other foo^
Hit.
ll
loj
,54
%
«iia'
On the planet,
has 10,000 days.
Jupiter,
Our printing service is
Phone 44, or send it to The *'''
Beware Coughs
from common col^
ThatHangC;
111
8
scr
fie
^lev
^faj
No matter how many medj^ ,
you have tried for your cot^ Hi
vated from quicksand was not ' goose could hear it and approach
innr>n r\-f o Qnri -n/v-f -t-. •.• •• . . . _
What Beer contributes to the re-building
of America would fill a great volume
Over 400 million dollars in taxes every
year O ver 1,000,000 jobs. A market for
S.Cui) 000 farm acres of produce.
The brewing industry would like to pre
serve for itself and the people the many
economic benefits it has created in the past
five years. Brewers everywhere realizethat
this is a question bound up with the proper
Vhited Brewers Industrial Foundation, 21 East 40th Slree^ New York, N. Y.
distribution of their mild and wholesome
beverage through retail outlets whose chau’-
acter will be a credit to the community.
Obviously, the brewers can enforce no laws.
But they can—and will—cooperate with
the local law-enforcement authorities. They
will cooperate with every group—friend or
critic —to the end that retail beer outlets
give no offense to anyone.
Wb they’d not Pea island with the sun to our
bother with It. They continued to backs. We’d be on them before
graze. They w«e not eating sand- they knew anything about it, and
spurs. . That night, in Itself then where’d they be. Well, we
be a hopeful portent. .hoped, etched on a piece of film.
We reasoned that if Del Thomas! But there was the weather that
stayed in the vehicle the geese Drinkwater had been running up
might have to spend some of their | flags about. Far off, low on the
time watching him, and maybe the | southern horizon, well over 10.0
camera could be advanced, like Na-,miles away—we could trace the
poleon’s army, belly-wise, through white line of the surf for 90 miles
the grass. This, plus the possibil-j and the cloud bank, glistening
ity that the thickening rain might!white like thunderheads, was be-
leave them with no great inclina-i yond that. The bank was coming
tion toward flying. Even so, it left I appreciably nearer,
the grass pretty clammy, and there | By riSw we were at 9,000 feet,
being no convenient way to carry and the ship quit climbing so ener-
the camera on my back—well, I getically. Northward the horizon
don’t know what Napoleon wiouldiwas clear, and there was the
have thought of his army sliding ;.smudge of Norfolk 90 miles away,
forward through grass on its back. Westward there was Williamston
walking on my head through the
bog for their amusement.
Back on the Island, when we
landed, the approaching storm was
still mot visible, and Drinkwater’s
bright flags mapped with the wind
in bright sunshine. . . The storm
broke six hours later.
cough, chest cold, or bronchia'^ .
tation, you may get relief no" -j le
Creomulsion. Serious troubled ij, ■
be brewing and you cannot ^
to take a chance with any oi
less potent than Creomulsion,
goes right to the seat of the
and aids nature to soothe Icj
the inflamed mucous meffl'^ll'fT.
and to loosen and expel
laden phlegm. , j i '
Even if other remedies have 'Vij,
don’t be discouraged, try Cv^2 ""His
Bion. Your druggist is authon^) t
refund your money if you (» *
thoroughly satisfled with the "j ,
fits obtained. Creomulsion 1
word, ask for it plainly, see
name on the bottle is Creoni“5
and you’ll get the genuine
and the reuef you want,
I'l'i
with cameras balanced across their
bellies.
It should be set down to the
and Washington and swinging
around the circle. Swan Quarter
and Ocracoke. Eastward the At-
credit of Del Thomas’ self-restraint lantic Ocean went its limitless way
that the situation was not aggra- j to darkness. Across the south was
vated by rgay unseemly eruptive the glaring slash of the approach-
merriment. He did say, afterward ing storm, still hours and hours
Beer...a Beverage of Moderation'
'-It fO'^
and casually that he wished he had
had a camera so he could have re
corded my progress gooseward
through the grass. But he was
very serious about it. He had, by
now, begun to take the photogra
phy of these geese entirely seri
ously.
Well, there they were, about 200
of them with a camera nearer
them than any snow goose had ever
allowed a camera to come before.
Last year the nearest Eckenberg
got, when he spent a week under
taking pictures for the Times, was
one mile. And here they were
within '50 feet of me. Not many
of them, to be sure, but some.
And the rain continued to drift
down.
One preposterously solemn old
gander, obviously the senior war
den of this parish, eyed me with
stolid malevolence. He emitted a
honk. I’m sure that he dared me
to come one inch nearer, or he’d
fly. He stood still while the rest
of the congrregation walked calmly
away from me, aiming to be well
off. But it was sending out a
scouting veil of haze; the Banks
were not so clearly etched against
the dark of the Atlantic.
And below, there was all of The
Island, curiously patterned against
the dark water of the four sounds
that surround it. “Too bad about
that haze coming up the beach,”
Driskill said. “If it wasn’t for
that you could get the whole of the
National Seashore in one picture
from here. And the island, too.
Wait a minute, and I’ll get you
fumed right Now, how’s
that?”
But what about the geese? Well,
they were there this morning, but
from here it’s 25 miles, air line, to
Pea Island . . . Well we can put;
her in a glide from here and we’ll
be down there on ’em withouL their
hearing us, or seeing us either.
'Hiat’s the way we figured if. The
Snow Geese had some other notions
about it, and by, the time we were
over them, they Ead abandoned the
Island and were settled down on
the Sound. Driskill said if that
F8ENCH LICK, INU
INDIANAPOLIS, INO.
WILLIAMSPORT, PA,
-Porfi Hoi«F
* *Gilb«rt Houl”
WHEELING WVA.
NORFOLK VA
WASHINGTON, n t
CHATTANOOGA, TENN'
'Gilbm-Ellii'’
lELLAIRE. OHIO
BALTIMORE, MD
-AhoiMt*
4Cl
>yi
'fy.
liSj
M
hi
out of range of the camera at such was the way they wanted to. play,
Ac
MAKE YOUR
Winter DRIVING
SAFER
I
Shorten your trip to downtown
Norfolk and lessen the hazards of
winter driving by taking Route
Va-21 direct to the - - - - -
Wai
NORFOLK-
berKley bridge
The “Connecting Link” on the Ocean
Highway North and South