My birding buddy Laura and I headed to the Assunpink Wildlife Management Area on Saturday, hoping to explore the expanses of the lake and it surrounding woods.
As we drove along Imlaystown-Hightstown Road, we knew something was not quite right. Everywhere we looked were pickup trucks and SUVs disgorging hunters in blaze orange and camo garb, shotguns crooked over their shoulders.
Unwittingly, we’d stumbled into hunting season.
We drove into the boat launch area at Assunpink Lake, gazing out onto flocks of ruddy ducks plying the waters. But every few minutes, we’d hear the crack of shotgun fire in the middle distance.
Another friendly birder, bedecked in orange vest, recommended that we avoid the eastern end of the lake as it was it was overrun by hunters seeking to bag pheasants.
Laura and I wanted no part of the hunters’ gathering, so we drove to the west edge of the lake, where there’s a wide open parking area. We stuck around to find more ruddy ducks and a few other birds before decamping for nearby Stone Tavern Lake.
Stone Tavern Lake was even more densely packed with hunters, and we watched cringingly as one hunter’s dog paddled after a wounded duck on a back channel. We drove off before watching the inevitable conclusion.
From there, we headed to our second planned destination, Mercer Corporate Park in Robbinsville, with its two small lakes that can be magnets for waterfowl. We saw scores of Canada geese, sweeping our field of vision in vain for cackling geese that surely must be floating among their larger cousins. It was to no avail, but we did spot an immature bald eagle flying high overhead, reasonable consolation for our continued futile search for the cacklers.
Asssunpink Lake has provided some thrills in the past, but I’m not going back until after hunting season. I don’t begrudge the hunters the pheasants, ducks and geese they bag, but I’d rather shoot birds with my camera.
The Jersey Birder 