Ramblings of a Lowcountry Game Warden: A Memoir

Hen Hunting in the Salt Marsh

Hen Hunting in the Salt Marsh he arrival of the winds of autumn brings forth the “marsh hen tides” and ushers in the hunting season for the elusive clapper rail, an inhabitant of the salt marsh commonly known as the marsh hen or mud hen. When coupled with the effects of a northeasterly wind, this tide provides the most ideal conditions for hunting hens, for the birds are no longer hidden in the depths and shadows of the marsh grass. The hunt is chiefly a waterborne quest, but some hunters disembark from their boats to walk the small hummocks and the fringes of marsh islands exposed above the high tides to flush out the birds. The marsh-hen tides really cast a dramatic appearance over the marshscape between the barrier islands and the mainland. With a little bit of wind the water could get up so high that only the very tips of the marsh grass were visible. There would be one vast sheet of water, with only a tall fringe of grass marking the borders of the myriad small creeks and the hummocks and marsh islands visible above the surface. The two-part season usually begins near mid-September and concludes near mid-December. The seasons are fixed to take advantage of the occurrence of as many high tides as possible. Regularly occurring “spring tides” come usually twice a month on the full moon and the new moon when the earth, the sun, and the moon are in a line, an astronomical event called a syzygy, my favorite Scrabble word. Really high tides, seven feet or better, occur every year and a half when the moon comes closest in its orbit to the earth in the new-moon phase. That phenomenon is called a proxigean spring tide. T Hen Hunting in the Salt Marsh 23 Regulated by the federal migratory-bird laws, marsh-hen hunting has a few restrictions. The hunter must have a state license as well as a free federal Harvest Information Program permit. There is a fifteen-bird limit. Repeating shotguns must be plugged to hold no more than three shells. No birds may be taken while the boat is in motion from the effects of motor power. It is also prohibited to use motor power to drive or concentrate marsh hens into a small area for shooting. That is the offense called rallying. The last two restrictions have caused many hen hunters to come to grief. I recall few hen patrols where I did not see at least one boatload of hunters careening headlong through the marsh grass, firing away at birds fleeing their approach. That violation was common not just among run-of-themill game hogs, of whom there would be few expectations of sportsmanship , but also among such exalted sorts as lawyers, doctors, preachers, and law-enforcement officers. One lawyer happened to be an assistant solicitor, and one law-enforcement officer was a deputy sheriff. The preacher was a Holiness cleric, who was in no way forgiving or repentant on the morning when I took all his birds and handed him several $250 tickets. I have Marsh-hen hunters demonstrating the violation of “taking rails while under motor power” 24 Ramblings of a Lowcountry Game Warden observed many hen hunters who suddenly tire of poling their boats, let their engines down, and go to running. I found that it was often only a matter of time before the hunter became an offender. During my hen patrols I loved to take along people who had previously expressed interest in coming with me when I was out working. I also took new game wardens out from time to time on training patrols. Usually I took them to one of the small hummocks that dotted the salt marsh, where we could stand up without being obvious. I handed them my binoculars and described to them what a running violation looked like. In my descriptive narrative, I would usually say that they would likely see someone standing up in the forward part of the boat with a gun in his hands and someone sitting down in the back running the boat. I said that they should be able to observe a bow wake and possibly hear some engine noise, which was audible at great distances in the crisp fall air. All those elements—coupled with the sight and sound of gunshots—constituted...