22 THE AUDUBON BULEETAa 
for nesting season.” Another letter followed in February: “Have circle 
in red on attached map one area you may photograph ... but doubt ; 
you can get access even with high boots due to spring flooding ... Enclosin 
a permit from Department of Interior for you to photograph May 1-31. 
I would need a guide. 
Early May our Illinois astrojet lowered again over the Delaware, no\ 
clear blue with green banks, where industry had not denuded. We circle 
over the Hudson and the Statue of Liberty in the smog, and landed i 
bright New Jersey, screaming in like an imperious hawk. 
At the big house it was tulip time, the sky an intense blue-violet, an 
the woodland slopes around the house sunny with daffodils, blue phlo 
and green jacks-in-the-pulpit. Suddenly a warbling vireo lisped, “Yo 
forgot your permit. Forgot your permit.” 
My sister joined me on the terrace. ‘Did you know your guide ; 
six-feet eight? Weighs only 285 pounds?” 
“Then I’ll hardly need a permit.’”’ I inhaled the spring, eager to explor 
The next morning the car was ready with cameras, binoculars an 
spring raingear, my sister at the wheel again. The split-rail fence wé 
ere banked with apricot and yellow azaleas, sunn 
ss forsythia, and daffodils. The road curved pai 
aisles of elegant white dogwood, towering pin 
dogwood, tumbling cascades of purple wister. 
by green firs, and garden after garden of shocl 
ing pink and rose-red azaleas in full flowe 
And suddenly we were out the old road agai 
heading for the swamp. 
At refuge headquarters we formally mi 
ce the staff: tall, dark talented George W. Gavuti 
To per manager; six- rect red-headed Mitch who was feeding baby gees 
and then the dynamite went off. Our guide arrived in a long car: six- -fo 
eight, 285-lb. Lou F. W. Schwankert, civil defense award winner, in 
ten gallon hat. He was head and shoulders in the sky. A permit seeme 
a trifle. 
Immediately we were taken back into the acreage of nesting Canac 
Geese where the public must remain at bay. Chains fell, and we wel 
permitted in to photograph the planned habitat for nesting these gre 
birds. Four young on the large pond surfaced like puffballs blowing 
the wind. Mature geese, regal with their black velvet heads and whi 
chin straps, moved slowly away from us. Their “green pastures” Wel 
fronted on wild water, banked with grasses, and backed against the fores 
From the protected nesting habitat, we were guided to the dikir 
areas ... large wild brimming ponds of clear, sky blue water. Hei 
optimum water habitat had been developed scientifically to encouras 
nesting of migratory waterfowl. Nine-hundred acres of wetland waterfov 
habitat will be improved through the construction of low dikes and wat 
control structures ... to create extensive nesting habitat. 
