Rail Bird Hunting The Boat, the River, and the Bird

Theme: Maritime History Authors: Laurie Pettigrew, Senior Wildlife Biologist New Jersey Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife Christine Raabe, Education Consultant

Subject Areas Vocabulary Language Art, Science, Art Rail bird, and others as required for interpretation of the story, although most Duration are defined by context clues within the One or two class periods writing of Pete Dunne

Setting Correlation to NJ Core Curriculum Indoors or outdoors* Content Standards * Simulated field trip with guided Language Arts Art imagery and story telling 3.2 (1,2,3,5,6,7) 1.2 (1,2,3,4) 3.4 (1,2,3,8,9,15) 1.3 (1,2) Skills 3.5 (1,2,5,6,7,10,12) 1.5 (4) Critical listening, interpreting, Science visualizing, applying, describing 5.12 (1,2,4,5,6) Charting the Course The traditional sport of rail bird hunting is indicative of the historical use of the Maurice River. The Camp family is exclusively and intimately intertwined Below: a scene from an oil painting by Thomas Eakins. with all aspects of this recreational The complete picture can activity. The Camp family still organizes be seen on page M33. hunts and has exclusive domain over rail bird hunting to this day. Included in this activity is a descriptive account of the personal experience of Pete Dunne (New Jersey Audubon Society) on a recent rail bird hunting excursion. This activity examines the various components of this traditional and cultural significant use of the area’s resources. Through visualizing the details described by Pete Dunne, the students will re-create an illustration of rail bird hunting, using an actual diagram of the Camp rail bird boat.

M31 Rail Bird Hunting –– The Boat, the River, and the Bird

Objectives migrate south. They reach of the long-ago disbanded Students will: Delaware Bay’s marshes after a West Jersey Game Protection night of travel and gather in the Society. On one momentous Describe and illustrate the rice beds, feasting on the grains. tide, members were reported to tradition of rail bird hunting This is why sportsmen the world have downed 21,000 birds — including habitat, techniques, over travel to this obscure 365 felled by a single gun. and behavior of the birds, the Bayshore community and for “But this blend of innocence boat, and the hunter based on a seventy-five dollars secure the simulated field trip and slaughter died with the services of the Camps — opulent century that spawned ‘for a (full) tide.’ such excesses. As recorded in Materials “President Benjamin Harris the ledgers of Ken Camp, an Copy of rail bird boat handout hunted these marshes a century environmentally tempered 1,500 Pencil ago and maybe he was pushed birds a year are currently killed by a Camp. Teddy Roosevelt, by gunners, an average of ten Art supplies including watercolor the president who championed birds per boat. While this may paints or other preferred medium wildlife conservation, was sound generous in an age where for illustration likewise drawn, as was a single black duck constitutes Large roll of paper for mural Philadelphia painter Thomas the legal limit and canvasback (optional) Eakins. So enamored of this may not be hunted at all, Ken esoteric brand of bird hunting Camp allows that the number of Making Connections was Eakins that he depicted the birds killed is consistent year to pageant no fewer than six times. year. The host of birds and the Rail bird hunting has been a What sort of bird can claim the harvest has fallen into harmony. long standing tradition in the favor of presidents and painters “In all of North America, there Down Jersey region. and place them in collusion with are but a handful of coastal An excerpt from Tide and Time New Jersey baymen? Why, the reaches where rails are still by Pete Dunne, Charting a sora rail, a small, chicken-like hunted in the traditional Course for the Delaware Bay marsh bird that lofts into the air fashion. In New Jersey, only Watershed, Harriet B. Honigfeld, like a grasshopper, flies like the one. Here. Along the banks of New Jersey Conservation Wright Brothers, and falls like a the Maurice River . . . ” Foundation, 1997. stone a split instant before gunners loosen the charge of shot that “Every year for four generations, Background the Camps of Port Elizabeth passes, often as not, cleanly over have poled gunners through the the backs of the birds. Hints for Using Simulated stands of wild rice that lines the “In the last quarter of the 19th Field Trips banks of the Maurice River. century, over a hundred thousand The following is reprinted from When the axis of the earth soras a year were taken from the Project WILD, pages 348-349 inclines toward autumn and the marshes flanking the Maurice — winds turn chill, rail birds most by the 200-odd members Western Regional Environmental Education Council, 1992. A simulated field trip is a powerful way for students to create vivid experiences in their mind’s eye. Many older people remember when the major form of entertainment was radio. With radio and its absence of visual images, many listeners were forced to create mental

M32 Rail Bird Hunting –– The Boat, the River, and the Bird pictures of the way various are combined with medicine. In slowly and steadily. If you characters looked and acted. It many instances, life-threatening want students to create rich was common for listeners to see illnesses have been reversed and mental pictures, you must landscapes, cities, and any overcome. allow them time to do so. It number of exotic settings. Often takes about as much time to The use of simulated field trips one hears teachers and parents observe mental images as it for instructional purposes is claim that radio helped make does to carefully review promising to become one of students more creative as it actual physical settings. the most effective educational required the listeners to stretch strategies of the past two decades. 5. Once the narrative is finished, their imaginations. Many The following guidelines provide invite the students to review neuroscientists concur. a basic, useful approach to the all of the images they saw Research has shown that, with use of simulated field trips as a in their minds. Again, try to their eyes closed, people activate teaching tool. allow enough time for an parts of their brain-mind systems 1. Ask students to lay aside all adequate visual review — that are often left unstimulated. pens, pencils, books, etc. and remember, the review When we picture things in our takes time. minds, we call parts of our 2. Instruct the students to sit in a comfortable and relaxed 6. After an adequate time for brains into activity that are mental review (at least one unused in reading or writing. position with their eyes closed. minute and possibly two Studies show skill in picturing minutes), ask the students things in our minds enhances our 3. Wait until you see a general to open their eyes. ability to enrich reading and to state of relaxation before increase skill and imagination in beginning. 7. Begin discussing the writing. The capacity to simulated field trip in terms remember concepts, words, 4. Using a steady and paced of the instructional purpose names and ideas is enhanced. reading and speaking style, for its use. Dramatic results have been begin offering students the achieved when these approaches narrative. Remember to speak

Pushing for Rail, by Thomas Eakins The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Arthur H. Hearn Fund, 1916, (16.65)

M33 Rail Bird Hunting –– The Boat, the River, and the Bird

In some cases, the process serves Procedure Action simply to provide a visual Warm Up Research the history of rail review of some of the students’ bird hunting and describe its Review Background information past experiences. At other times, relationship and significance to on Using Simulated Field Trips you are providing stimuli for the the region Down Jersey. students to create original images. If desired, show the segment of In any case, it is important to the video that deals with rail Assessment realize that there are no mistakes bird hunting. in mental images. What a student Participation in class discussion pictures is real. The images are The Activity and creation of the mural and/or data. If students create images 1. Set the stage by preparing the illustration. that are inconsistent with what students for a simulated field you expected, consider the trip. Tell them that they will Extensions images to represent differing be hearing a personal account Have students do other creative perspectives rather than wrong of the author’s experience projects using the topic of rail answers. Try to honor and with rail bird hunting. nourish variety as a means to bird hunting as a focus: poetry add richness to the topics being 2. Read the passage about rail and stories. Students could explored. bird hunting by Pete Dunne make a mobile which includes included. Instruct students to all of the components of a rail In addition to serving as a create a mental image of what bird hunt. Also, students could powerful and effective way to is being described and to investigate and compare/ explore and remember concepts, include as many details as contrast the other bird species regular use of simulated field possible. that are (or were) regularly trips also tends to relax students. 3. After the simulated field trip hunted along the tidal tributaries When relaxed, they will of the Delaware Estuary. frequently be more productive is completed, instruct students in all academic areas — — either individually or in Utilize rail bird hunting as a including scoring higher on groups — to create a picture focus for interviewing people standardized achievement tests. or illustration of the rail bird that have been rail bird hunting hunt as it was described before. See Activity: Saving during the simulated field Local History. trip. Students should try to include as many details as possible and work toward Resources creating a complete picture of all components described. Charting a Course for the Things to include (but not Delaware Bay Watershed, limited to): the boat, the Honigfeld, Harriet B. habitat, the river, the bird, Published by the New Jersey the hunters, the scene, etc. Conservation Foundation Bamboo Brook Wrap Up 170 Longview Road Far Hills, NJ 07931-2623 Discuss the various drawings/ (908) 234-1225. murals created by the class. Copyright 1997. Critique their artistic merit and accuracy in illustrating rail bird Other books related to hunting and the Maurice River waterfowl hunting. ecosystem. See especially, Shorebird Decoy Activity.

M34 Rail Bird Hunting –– The Boat, the River, and the Bird

From the Introduction to Charting a Course for the Delaware Bay Watershed, by Harriet B. Honigfeld, published by the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, 1997

Tide and Time by Pete Dunne, Director of New Jersey Audubon Society’s Cape May Bird Observatory

Labor Day traffic was already He was short and sixtyish, Neither the boat nor the pole building on Route 47 — the old dressed in the standard garb of a has changed design for a north-south highway whose Delaware bayman — generic hundred years, and there is a course follows the contours of trousers that might have been reason for this. They work just New Jersey’s Delaware Bay. black beneath their layer of dust, fine the way they are. Summer 1994 was over, history. unembellished T-shirt stained “Pete Dunne,” I said reaching The sound of cars ferrying with sweat, running shoes for the free hand. people from short-lived whose fabric was permanently vacations in impregnated with mud. “Walter Camp,” he said taking it. Cape May back to the work He wore an orange hunting “Ken’s brother?” I asked. weeks ahead reached the river cap bearing the legend of a like an ugly rumor. He responded with a nod and a local gun shop, a gold neck grin so wide it seemed to bisect “Hello,” I said to the figure chain, and a grin that exuded his face. “Water’s comin’ up bending over by the row boats puckish good humor. fine,” he said, anticipating my lining the riverbank. In his left hand he carried the next question, nodding toward “Hul’o,” he said, rising, fifteen-foot pole with the three- the river bank. “I put that stick showing me his face. “Goin’ prong end that he would use to in when I arrived, and it’s with us today?” propel his boat and his client already come up that far.” “Yes,” I said. through the riverside marsh. “That far,” measured horizontally, was about a foot and a half of rising water. In terms of depth, it was maybe an inch, which might not sound like much, but when it comes to pushing gunners through the fibrous stands of wild rice that line the river, every inch of buoyancy helps. “Been rail birdin’ before?” “Yes,” I affirmed, not at all miffed that Walter didn’t recall. After all, one hundred and fifty clients a year seek the services of the Camps, and it had been three years since I’d last gone “rail birdin” — in 1991 to be

M35 Rail Bird Hunting –– The Boat, the River, and the Bird exact, the year my wife and I Given enough time it is possible according to Walter, was the moved from Hunterdon County, that those who come to draw a source of the sora’s colloquial New Jersey, farm and bought a measure of the river’s magic name “rail bird.” As Walter home in a town two miles down may even find their speech explains it, during flood tides river. And I’d been poled not by patterns changing to match the the birds would collect on the Walter Camp but Rich Camp, twangy, syllable-eating flow that floating fence planking, or rails. Walter’s nephew and Ken’s son, characterizes the South Jersey Gunners hoping to economize the inheritor of a tradition that dialect — a brand of English on powder and shot would line vaults a century and is virtually that transforms meadows into their fowling pieces up along endemic to the region. “medahs,” muskrat into “m’shra’” the linear assemblage and reap Soon the others began to arrive and boats into items of apparel a harvest of “rail birds.” at the landing — both the that other English speakers slip But 1870 was a long time ago sportsmen who had enlisted the over their feet. even by the reckoning of services of the Camps and the “Let’s go,” Ken commands, Bayshore residents. Walter’s men who would pole the boats. quietly, and one by one the reference to a hurricane probably In short order acquaintances gunners take their positions in related to a more recent storm, were made or renewed, the bow, one gunner to a boat. one falling upon the region in inquiries relating to health The boatmen heft their poles, living memory of my guide. made, and snide observations testing the balance and the “How old are you, Walter?” relating to weight and age weight, then push off from the I inquired. bandied and denied. bank, turning into the tide. “Sixty-six,” he said through his Then the waiting began, which Overhead, clouds that look trademark grin. “Bin polin’ sin’s is as much a part of the ritual as like they were put there with a I was 18. In this boot,” he added the hunt. It is said that tide and putty knife add character to a without being asked. time wait for no man but on cobalt sky. Over the stands of this river; tide and time are one. Phragmites, a startled flock of I looked down at the sleek Here, for generations, life and blue-winged teal takes flight, sliver of hand crafted cedar — movement have been governed weaving a tight, turning pattern a craft that bears a likeness to a by the tide and as men are that carries them from view. kayak and utilitarian ties to a gondola. Most of the ribs have forced to wait for the water to I look back at Walter who been replaced, some twice. come up; they fall into the smiles and nods. “There nevah natural pattern of the river. You The bottom, too, looked to have use to be phagmahte heah befo’ been replanked during one of the can see the change if you take tha hurricane,” he observed. time to watch. more recent decades. The color Phragmites, also called foxtail was neutral. It was a simple boat, Men, whose movements were or plume grass, have been in the simple fusion of purpose and quick and nervous when they New Jersey a long time, and I design, and it was beautiful. arrived, steady. Darting eyes wondered which coastal storm grow thoughtful and fixed. “Where do you live?” I asked Walter might be referring to — my guide. Laughter, after the river has perhaps the great storm of 1870 worked its spell, swells from the that breached the protective “Dorchester,” he said, belly, not the brain, and stories dikes that stood between the compressing the name into two take the place of the quips and farms and the river. It was the impossible-to-render syllables. anecdotes that dominated early inundation of these diked farms “Same place the boat was built.” conversation. that gave rise to the rice marshes we’d be hunting today and,

M36 Rail Bird Hunting –– The Boat, the River, and the Bird

Our boats rounded a point of Maurice still enjoy a special “Been out to see the trees where land, and I could see the bridge relationship. The river’s recent the monarchs roost?” I asked, and steeple of the Mauricetown designation “Wild and Scenic” not naming the place, certain Methodist Church poking over may even assure that this Walter would know where it was. the trees. It pleased me that the timeless association endures. “Oh yeah,” he affirmed. stands of rice we’d been hunting Our boats were approaching the “Went out thar th’other night. would lie in the shadow of stands of rice, now. The seed Not much happenin’.” my town. heads were bowed with the “Be different tonight I’ll bet.” “This heah was diked when I weight of their bounty but hung was a kid,” Walter said, nodding motionless in the windless air. “I’ll bet,” he agreed. “Better get toward the shore. “W’used t’ Overhead, a monarch butterfly ready to stand up,” he warned. swim ’cross to git watermel’ns fluttered with movements that “We’re getting into position.” an swim back wi’em.” hesitated between effort and I stood up in the bow, hooking I didn’t ask whether they were ease. Above it was another… my left foot beneath the planking purchased watermelons or And another… more! Perfect for balance.Thousands of found watermelons — not that flying conditions for migrating gunners had assumed this exact it mattered. After all, Walter had monarchs. Seeing them called stance before me, on this river, been a riverside kid and this to mind one of the great local in this boat, guided by the skills offers a special brand of roost areas where insects spend of the man behind me. Now, it protective immunity (so long as the night, roosts as festooned was my turn to place my feet in you don’t get caught). If the with folded winged insects as their footprints. number of ropes dangling from the celebrated sites on limbs overhanging the river are California’s Central Coast. any measure, kids and the

M37 Rail Bird Hunting –– The Boat, the River, and the Bird

A shadow out of the corner “Be read’h when we near the But in this frozen moment that of my eye distracted me edge,” Walter counseled. “The lies between anticipation and momentarily. I turned, looking birds’ll most likely jump when action, between what is and up and back in time to make we git to the edge.” what may be, there is time to out the silhouette of a soaring reflect. I could not see edge. I could see eagle before the boat and then nothing but reed. But Walter, Upon who you are. Upon what the world spun out of control. who has lived on these marshes you are doing. Upon what an Only Walter’s counterbalancing for 66 years and poled clients incredible privilege it is… efforts in the stern kept me from for 48 of them knows each ditch being pitched into the river. To live in this age. On the banks and dike, knows them because of this river. And to know kinship “Ste’dy,” Walter counseled. he was born to them. I put my with presidents, painters and the “Be a sham t’lose ’er now.” faith in him. Delaware baymen whose lives “Load up,” Ken commanded, One push pole length… two … were moored in the past. quietly, but his voice carried and brightness intruded upon Later, when the tide had turned, down the line. From other boats reed in front of us. Another when the day’s hunt was over, I heard the latch-soft snap of push and I could see open when the birds were laid in the doubles being closed. Through water, the edge, just one push bow of the boats, and the day’s the floor plate of auto-load I pole length away. events were rendered into slipped a shell and was rewarded “Be read’h when we git to the stories that would gain stature by the ringing sound of metal edge,” I repeated in my mind with every telling, one of Ken’s on metal. and felt the thought crystallize clients made an observation We entered the rice in a line. into anticipation. that struck home. The stalks closed in around us Through the planking, through Said this man of our day on and the world disappeared. The my feet, I could feel Walter the river, “It’s like history’s standing forms of my steadying himself for the final come back again,” which is companions were reduced to effort. I knew when he moved wonderfully frank, and almost disembodied orange caps. his pole forward. Felt when the accurate, flawed only in this Beneath their brims, faces were pole found footing on the one respect. Here, on the tidal turning intently ahead. bottom. Held my breath as he tributaries of Delaware Bay, In the stern, Walter leaned into lay into the pole and threw his there is no need for history to his pole, and the boat moved weight into it. come back again. Here along forward, passing through the the watercourses of Gloucester, There is a moment’s hesitation reed the way truth cuts through Salem, Cumberland and Cape between the time when a poler doubt. Red-winged blackbirds May counties, it never left. leans into his pole and when a exploded from the reeds, boat moves forward. Maybe Perhaps in other places, history protesting loudly, and from it’s the friction of the reeds. is linear and easily fragmented. assorted boats polers checked Maybe it’s because at this But here, along the watercourses their client’s half-raised guns junction between the lives of of Delaware Bay, history is with commands to “Hold, hold,” living things, time becomes geometric. It expands and does preventing any unfortunate frozen and actions that seem not diminish. Each generation mistakes. momentary at other times are draws from its depths and adds detached and eternal, now. to its dimensions.

M38 M39a Maurice River Railbird Boat Sides are made from white cedar, 1/2" thick. Bottom is made from 3 pieces of 3/4" white cedar, tongue and groove. Stem, stern, ribs and braces are made of sassafras. Decks and gunwales are made of 1/2" white cedar. Figure 1 Battens are made of white cedar, 3/4" x 1 3/4" stock. Side View Brass screws are used throughout.

Cut out sides using paper template. Bend sides over a form constructed according to top and bottom measurements shown in Figure 2. The raise at the stem and stern and intermediate points should coincide with the measurements between bottom of side and base line shown in Figure 1. Construct ribs using paper templates and rib length and bend data given in Figures 2 and 4. Plank lengthwise. Battens are placed between each rib section. Deck stern as shown in Figure 3. Cleats may be added along edges of deck as a brace for pusher’s feet. Deck bow to first rib. Use a 3/4" cypress moulding on outer edge of gunwale. Install a removable false bottom using 3/8" x 1" stock. Boat is propelled with a 16´ cedar push pole equipped with three legs at the bottom.

Maurice River Railbird Boat Scale: 1" = 10'

M40a Figure 2 Top View

Figure 3 Top View of Deck

Figure 4 Typical Rib Section

Figure 5 Section of Bottom

M41a