That Saturday in late January it was still open season. Per day that meant 6 ducks, no more than:
2 mallards (only one can be a hen)
3 woodducks
2 canvasback
1 pintail
2 redheads
1 scaup
1 fulvous tree duck
1 mottled duck
4 sea ducks (no more than 3 scooters)
3 longtailed ducks or 3 eiders (only 1 eider hen)
But no harlequins!!!
So the newspaper said.
That same Saturday
I heard some quantity of above-listed birds
chortle and fuss and quake
leather wings kicking the river to rise up
and I guess they did
because then
a shotgun split the sky and
the silence that followed
broke my ears.
Photo by Townsend Walton on Unsplash