A bald eagle soared over Choptank near Williston, Md., as Cpl. Danny Callahan of the MarylandNatural Resources Police scanned the horizon last Saturday. The eagle cruised low over the water, and then flapped away. Callahan did not see any signs of waterfowl hunters that he was checking last Saturday. We turned and left for more patrolling.
We had started at 7 a.m. at the Hillsboro Natural Resource Police office, with wind estimated at 50-mph gusts. By mid-morning, snow flurries dusted the overcast skies.
It was bitter cold as Callahan drove the roads, frequenting leaving his unmarked police vehicle to check goose hunters in their wind-whipped blinds ? decoys blown down, Labradors and hunters chilled. Riding the roads is a good way of making these “compliance checks.”
Callahan related the time he had a female writer along, one who did not quite understand the concept of cruising back roads.
“You like shopping,” he explained to her and related to me. “We?re kinda shopping. We?re looking for a sale.”
With our second stop, we found a “sale” ? a young hunter who had left his license at home, but insisted that he had bought it. Uh-huh. Non-possession of a license is a finable offense. There can be lots of “my dog ate the homework” excuses when it comes to fish and game laws ? the “license at home” just one of them. A quick call to the Annapolis DNR computers proved the young man right.
“I?m saving you $80 right now,” Callahan said, handing a warning ticket and the driver?s license back to the hunter.
Callahan always works with a smile ? quiet, deprecating humor, a question or story to tell, and a ready handshake. It works best that way. He has worked Caroline County for 14 of his 20 years with the NRP, starting with the cadet program. He knows most of the people in the county, the areas they like to hunt, the good guys and the outlaws. In one case he recalled, he had arrested three generations of illegal hunters from one family over the years ? grandfather, father andson.
Another stop during the day revealed a hunter with a “deer in the headlights” look, and a similar story about his license. He had his license but left the federal waterfowl stamp “at home.” A computer check revealed no previous violations and a purchased license. It got him a warning ticket and strong lecture about buying his federal waterfowl stamp later that day. Later checks were similar, checking for minor infractions by waterfowl hunters and trading stories with a group of rabbit hunters.
Because of the writer show-and-tell, last Saturday proved longer than most for Callahan. After a dawn start of checking goose hunters, he would end the day after dark, staked out for jacklighters taking deer by spotlight.
A little more shopping ? still just looking for another sale.
C. Boyd Pfeiffer is an internationally known sportsman and award-winning writer on fishing, hunting, and the outdoors, and is currently working on his 25th book. He can be reached at [email protected].
