Holiday food for thought

It's a breezy 78 degree Christmas day here in Discovery Bay, Jamaica.

I have long believed that, like the man said, "Just because we can, does not mean that we should." In this vein, my holiday thought - enough is as good as a feast. 

Of course, one reason that we hunt is to get the bird in our hand, and to reward the efforts of our dogs. But if we measure the success of our efforts afield based solely on the number of birds in the bag, we miss out on the many intrinsic rewards that make a day afield rewarding - the sight of October aspens, the smell of sage on the wind, and the sound of chukars on the far rimrock. These things matter.

Tom Chandler lives and fishes on the Upper Sacramento River in Dunsmuir, California and offers an entertaining and off-center blog - Trout Underground  In this essay on 'body counts' in fishing he presents the idea that 'counting' degrades the sport. An idea that I heartily agree with. Also applies, in my opinion, to bird hunting.  Here's a sample from Tom's essay...

Sport is a reflection of society, and there's little doubt that society today is largely a numbers game. We measure ourselves not by the quality of our lives or the experiences we take from each day, but by the digits on our pay stubs, the model number of our automobiles, the square footage of our homes - even the modulus of our fly rods. Higher is almost always better, and even those who might not otherwise play get sucked in by its brutal simplicity.

Merry Christmas! I hope that everyone's Christmas exceeds their hopes and prayers.

Photo by Clair Kofoed