"In the marsh, long windy waves surge across the 

 grassy sloughs, beat against the far willows. A tree 

 tries to argue, bare limbs waving, but there is no 

 detaining the wind." Aldo Leopold, A Sand County 

 Almanac. 



The Aerial Environment 



1he aerial environment is the medium of trans- 

 portation to ranges far and near, a haven in the face of enemies, the source 

 of companions. The sky is the realm of weather, the place of sun and moon, 

 a shroud of darkness, the home of the wind. 



On land or water the duck is ever aware of air as a force. It obeys the 

 pressure of the moving air mass by facing the wind. Ducks napping on the 

 Station pond are sensitive to the wind's strength and must paddle with the 

 feet, even as they repose, to keep from being blown ashore. Geese sleeping 

 on the beach all have their breasts aimed at the wind. They are "weather- 

 cocking," to borrow an airman's term; the natural streamlining of then- 

 bodies offers the least resistance when they face into the wind like weather- 

 vanes. All wildfowlers know the relation between ducks and the lee on 

 windy days. Here the decoy hunter sets his rig, the jump shooter plies his 

 canoe; this is where one finds waterfowl in a storm. No wildfowler com- 

 mits himself to a plan by the evening fireside; he awaits the dawn, when 

 his first act is to test the wind, his guide to location for hide and rig. The 

 finest of all shooting places in a south blow is worthless for gunning when 

 the wind comes from the west. 



The duck is always sensitive to the wind when taking off and alighting; 

 it must face the air stream at start and finish of flight. Several times in nar- 

 row channels I have forced ducks to take off downwind; each time the bird 

 stalled, its initial thrust being insufficient to make it airborne. Edgar M. 

 Queeny's superb photographs (1947) of waterfowl in flight tell us much of 

 the bird's relation to its aerial environment, his high-speed camera revealing 

 secrets never detected by the unaided eye. His photographs of a Mallard 



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