Pennsylvania Game News - October 2008 - 25

Hartstown/Linesville Road, we heard shooting and saw one of them go down.” I thanked them for the information and continued checking hunters, working my way towards Hartstown/Linesville Road, a good half mile away. All the hunters I spoke to indicated that they’d seen the sandhill cranes fly over, heard shooting and observed one crane fall from the sky. When I arrived at the blind where the sandhill was allegedly shot and checked the hunters, they admitted to seeing the cranes fly over but stated that they didn’t shoot at them. None of their shotguns had been fired that morning and the 10 shotgun shells they were each permitted were all accounted for. The members of this blind all pointed across the road to the public hunting portion of SGL 214 and said the hunters who’d shot the sandhill crane were there. I thanked them for their cooperation and walked across the road into a swampy area covered in snow, toward the eight remaining rows of standing corn. In the cornrows I saw two camouflaged hunters set up with their goose decoys. I introduced myself, and the two were extremely friendly and talkative, with many questions as I checked their hunting licenses, duck stamps, HIP licenses and shotguns. Harley Poffer and Enos Tuber acted as if they had known me all my life and couldn’t stop talking. I knew something was up as their nervousness belied them. I had the pair unload their shotguns and asked if they had gotten any shooting at waterfowl this morning. Harley responded, “No. No shooting at all. Everything was out of range, too high.” Enos then shook his head in unison and said, “No, nothing at all, too high.” I asked them again and the response was the same, even though empty shotgun hulls were at their feet in the fresh snow. I looked at the pair and said, “I need you both to show me where you put the sandhill crane you killed earlier this morning.” OCTOBER 2008 Harley’s jaw dropped, his mouth agape, and he seemed to go into a trance, staring at me for almost 30 seconds without saying a word, eyes glowing like saucers. I repeated my request and Harley looked at Enos then back at me and said, “I put it over here.” In the snow I could see a lone set of fresh tracks through the field and into the woods and a large thicket. We retrieved the sandhill crane and headed back to their decoys. Harley said that they got scared and ditched the bird and that it was an accident. I asked them why they didn’t report their mistake instead of hiding the bird. Harley and Enos just looked at one another, unable to come up with an answer. Then the pair started telling me all the people they knew in the Game Commission and that they should be given a warning. I informed them both that they would be receiving citations for shooting a protected bird. I called LMO Bish on my cell phone to pick me up, because I was a mile and a half from my vehicle. Bish and LES Jim Egley arrived and Bish informed the pair that they would probably receive a license revocation for killing the protected bird, and they again apologized. Mr. Fowl, Harley and Enos pled guilty and each paid fines and costs of $129.50, and lost their hunting privileges in Pennsylvania for one year. An interesting side note is that Harley and Enos requested an administrative hearing in Harrisburg to plead their case as to why they should not lose their hunting privileges. At the hearing the pair said they didn’t mean to shoot the sandhill crane, but had made an honest mistake, and that it had been 50 feet away when they shot at it. They also indicated that they knew a lot of people in the agency and 25

Pennsylvania Game News - October 2008

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