That Color of Green

Although I have never been asked this question, I have seen it in people’s faces. Why do you hunt? I could come up with many answers but today I chose this one. Have you ever looked at a Mallard Drake up close? Most people haven’t. The color of green in the feathers of a drake mallard are simply amazing and most likely impossible to duplicate. Now I know what you are thinking, “I could go to a farm and look at one”. True, but it would not be the same. Wild ducks born of the prairie regions in the Dakotas and Canada have colors like no other, colors that have been bread out of tame ducks years ago. These ducks come into this world at a huge disadvantage. From day one they are sought after by many predators, coyote, skunks, fox, birds of prey and in some areas even large fish. They grow and become strong over the summer in preparation of the yearly migration south for the winter. During their migration, they experience some pretty harsh winter conditions. Some say that these conditions add to their inherent colors. The orange in their legs gets oranger and the green in their heads gets greener with every freezing mile they fly. Now these are strong birds. They have to be to withstand these conditions and cover the distances that they do. “Why would you want to end the life of something that has worked so hard and overcame so much to get to where it is at”? At this point there are several arguments, one being for the nourishment of our bodies. Many will dispute this but I have 4 boys at home that will argue duck makes pretty good table fare. Duck breast sliced thin and marinated in a lemon and garlic sauce, placed on the grill with a slice of white onion….well let’s just say it will not last long on our table. That is how we do things in our house. We feed our family with meat and veggies harvested from the land, things that we have grown or hunted by our own hands. But let’s take this even one step further and look at another reason. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt I have seen and felt things while duck hunting that you will not find any where else in this universe. Sun rises so beautiful that you can almost hear them and sun sets that Da Vinci himself could never duplicate. I have seen stars so clearly in the darkest sky, a darkness that you can’t experience any where close to human structures. All these things God placed here for us. I can’t even begin to explain the feeling of reverence and respect I feel when I hold one of these birds. You can’t help but feel gods love and that he had something really special in mind when he created That Color of Green.