SECTION U
JAGES 1 lo 8
MedfordJTribune
MEDFORD, OREGON, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1963
The Flying Duckman...
Follows the Migration from Mexican Tropics to Arctic Circle
By EVA HAMILTON
Mail Tribune Staff Writer
Awakened in the night by the haunting cries of wild
geese flying, north for summer, south for winter, haven't
you longed to join that winged band's migration?
There is a Rogue valley citizen who does. Every
year. He is Robert H. (Bob) Smith, who moved to south
ern Oregon 13 years ago.
"Where the ducks fly, there flics he; over marsh and
over lea," in his Grumman Goose, an amphibian plane.
As flyway biologist with the Department of Interior
Fish and Wildlife Service, he works the same beat as
the birds, following the broad lanes of migration they
travel from the Mexican tropics to the Arctic circle. He
counts the birds in the Pacific flyway.
Wide Publicity Gained I
Nicknamed "The Flying Duckman" from Washington,
D.C., to the state of Washington, Smith gained his widest
publicity when he "stumbled on to" the almost extinct
whooping crane's nesting ground just south of Great
Slave lake in northern Canada in 1952.
"We could hardly believe our eyes when we popped on
to them," Smith remarked at his Hillside Drive resi
dence, where he makes his home with his sister, Eliza
beth, when he isn't "with the birds." Most of the time
he is in migration.
"We saw two individual cranes and two young," he
continued with his story of the incident, which brought
reporters from far away places to meet his plane.
"They wanted to buy the pictures and I guess I should
have sold them to them, but they wouldn't have meant
anything to them." Smith produced the pictures, and his
summation was correct. One needs the eyes of a falcon
for this bird counting business. The dots on the glossy
print of the marshes could be whooping cranes only to
the man who had seen them.
Finds Them Each Year
"Since then, I have never seen them there," Smith
added, "but the Canadian wildlife service has found the
cranes on the north side of the lake each year."
Why was this particular discovery of such interest
to the press?
"Naturalists the world over were interested in the
preservation of these birds. Ornithologists had sought
their breeding ground for more than half a century,"
Smith answered.
The importance of the breeding ground discovery,
Smith explained, could be guaged by the fact that only
a few living specimens of this tall waterfowl remain on
the whole of the North American continent. About 30
birds that year spent the winter on the Texas coastal
marshes 3,000 miles from the birds' nesting ground.
Considered Step Forward
Discovery of the breeding ground was considered a
definite forward step in the preservation of what was
considered "America's rarest bird."
With Smith on the history making flight was Everett
L. Sutton of Aberdeen, S.D. The two scientists flew
25,000 miles from the States to British Columbia, Queen
Charlotte Islands, through the Northwest Territory and
the Yukon along the Arctic coast to Victoria Island and
Banks Island.
One of the perils of the journey was experienced by
the men when they landed the twin-engined Amphibian
at Holman island west of Victoria Island on July 20.
The waters were suddenly filled with churning ice,
created by the southeast wind. The ice threatened to
damage the planes hull and the men were up 48 hours
keeping ice cakes,vaway from the plane. A chilling
experience for July.
Although the whooping crane discovery brought
scientists the most fame, it was not what Smith calls
the most exciting experience ill his 27 years as a flyway
biologist.
yg.. . ii i y ' .
It - -.. S-.Sjv.,- ' .
te, dL&
'"jr. '
' Displaying some of his Eskimo trophies, sun glasses, a bow and a fur parka, all hand
made, Bob Smith is shown here at his Rogue valley home.
not be further documented because neither Smith nor
Chamberlain remembered the name of the Seabee pilot,
who moved away from the area before the Wildlife
department was able lo give the "act of bravery" fur
ther recognition.
Experiences Engine Trouble
Smith has experienced engine trouble in the land of
the midnight sun. He had to change engines once at the
mouth of the McKcnzie, dropped half of the tools in
the water before he got it fixed, he admitted.
He will be going back lo the arctic about the middle
of May. He recently returned from Mexico. He lias been
making the Mexican count for 15 years. Before the rise
of Castro, he returned through Cuba and the West Indies.
He pioneered the aerial service for the bird count 20
years ago. Before that lime the count was made from
the surface. The biologists now fly planes at 130 miles
an hour at an altitude of 100 feet usually. The count is
limited to a strip one eighth mile wide on each side
of the plane. Smith always has another biologist with
him.
Trip in Freighter Canoe
In this category he places a 1944 trip in a 20-foot
freighter canoe, destination Cape Henrietta Maria on
James Bay, which joins Hudson Bay. The trip took 64
days and during those 64 days he traveled only 350
miles with two Cree Indian guides. He was actually the
first white man to reach the cape since 1900. Others had
been turned back by the ice pack. The Indians had been
halfway to the area but Cape Henrietta was new country
to them.
"It was like stepping back in history at least 200
years to live with the people in their primitive ways.
At Lake River, 30 lo 40 miles from Henrietta Maria,
there was a Hudson Bay store, operated by a half breed.
Most of the people had never seen a while man when I
first walked in," Smith recalled.
"I was dressed very much like one of them and a
bevy of young girls started lo meet me (Smith is a
bachelor). When they discovered I was not one of them
they scattered like a covey of quail. I went into the
store -r.d could feel eyes staring at me. I turned lo see
slits appearing in their teepee homes and knew they
were peering through the slits,"
Was he frightened? "No." Smith said he knew they
were not belligerent, just shy and curious. Eventually
they stuck their heads out of the teepees, then came
closer and closer and finally Into the store where they
viewed him "as a man from Mars."
On the trip with the two guides. Smith said he soon
decided it would be easier for him to learn Cree than
to teach them English, so he pursued that approach.
"We got right back to fundamentals," he added. "Our
only concern was a place to sleep, something to eat, and
a fair wind with which to travel."
James Bay is tide water and it fluctuates 12 feet.
He found he could travel about four hours on a tide.
Then the trio would go up a little creek to find a camping
spot. They found themselves caught in the bay several
times. In the canoe they made tea and cooked beans on
a little Swedish heater. They always carried fresh water
with them. He took along a single barreled shotgun and
"we ate all the specimens," Smith interjected.
Everything Goes Into Pot -
"Everything went into the pot after the bands and
skins were taken. We established a number of new
breeding records, on the red throated loon, king elder
and old squaw duck, an arctic breeding duck. I also
collected marsh and aquatic plants and moss. We were
weather bound for a week in one spot and during that
period we were flooded out of camp five times."
Smith was operating on the Mississippi flyway when
he made this trip. There are four flyways on this conti
nent, the Pacific, the Mississippi, the Central and the
Atlantic.
The Wildlife Service had a problem with Canadian
gecse. The Indians had been shooting the geese for years
and keeping the identification bands. But no one had
been able to reclaim the bands so no findings regarding
migration and breeding grounds had been established.
When Smith got into the territory he collected thou
sands of bands from the Indians some were wearing
them as necklaces, entwined with duck bills. They called
Americans "Longknives" and were anxious to trade
skins for powder and shot. By collecting the bands,
Smith established the fact that gecse were breeding in
the area in great numbers.
Perilous Feat in Smith'i Life
One of the most perilous feats in Smith's adventurous
life was brought to attention by his sister, who keeps a
scrapbook.
On July 17, 1959, with another flyway biologist, E. B.
Chamberlain, Smith rescued a Seabee and his three sons
adrift in heavy seas on Great Slave lake. RCAF rescue
aircraft had been unable to respond to the rescue call
because the waves were too high for their aircraft. The
Mounted Police had been asked to effect a rescue by
use of a boat, but this, also, was no considered feasible
until the waves and wind had subsided. Smith and
Chamberlain responded and the Grumman Goose did
the trick.
The air-sea rescue was described as one of "excep
tional skill and courageous pilot ability involving con
siderable risk to personal safety." The department ex
pressed disappointment that the "act of bravery" could
"We know we miss some, but statisticians feel we're
getting a true index to the increase or decrease of the
waterfowl population. We can actually identify just
about anything from the air, even a robin in the brush.
In Mexico, we find the birds concentrated, several hun
dred thousand in one spot, 25 different species of ducks,
six species of gecse. In Canada they are scattered out in
nesting grounds."
Basis for Annual Regulations
What is the purpose of all this? It is the basis for
the annual regulations which determine the daily limit
and the length of seasons for hunters throughout the
continent. And it lays the ground work for preservation
of game.
The bird population is decreasing in all areas, pri
marily because of drouth, the flyway biologists have
found. This condition has existed for several years. "It
is an accumulative thing, about which we can do nothing
at this time except restrict the kill until the drouth
ends," Smith lamented. His research shows that ducks
in their natural habitat live about three years, geese five.
Well cared for in capacity a goose may live 50 to 75
years.
He also likes to hunt and fish. He has found both
sports among the compensations he enjoys in his job.
He has caught trout "as long as your leg" from Great
Slave lake and he has killed caribou. He has had to
nose buzzards and man 0' war birds out of the way of
his plane in Mexico and eagles and hawks in the north.
His work prabably is "downright perilous" as the
magazine writers say, but the only broken bone he's had
he got fixing the television aerial at his home.
Hunting, Fishing In Blood
Between flights he is never idle, this Dartmouth
grad of 1932. He's a native of Iowa and there is "hunt
ing and fishing in his blood." Between summer and
winter flights, he makes short trips into Klamath Basin
one of the most important spots in the Pacific flyway;
into Warner Valley and Tillamook in Oregon and the
Brant bays in California. When he isn't counting birds
he's writing about them or other game.
Right now he Is working on a chapter, "Northern
Watersheds and Deltas" for a book, entitled "Water
Fowl Tomorrow," to be published by the Department of
the Interior. But he's getting that look in his eye that
indicates he's getting anxious to take flight and find
just where the reeds bend over some waterfowl's shel
tered nest. Whether it be "Of Weedy lake, or marge of
river wide. Or where the rocking billows rise and sink.
On the chafed ocean side" - to quote William Cullen
Bryant's "To A Waterfowl," written, no doubt, when
no one envisaged a time when it would be necessary to
count' ducks and geese lo avoid their extinction In
America.
i
Open water ducks, blue bills and pin tails, swimming In Manitoba witters. They are also
common In the Klamath country. (Photo by Frank Dufresne, Fish and Wildlife Service)
This is the marsh near Great Slave lake where Smith and his companion spotted the
rare whooping crane. It is the white dov in the lower left hand corner of the picture,
which was taken by Smith while flying over the area.
I "-Sir!
n
"4 Jr
i
1
if-. ,
V ir. r
1 I
5
Smith is Mttiri: n the nos' of his Grumman Goose whi ! cmpin iins man the rubber raft near the Arctic Circle.
r. --jw 'onb iy mz- 5
1. . I
it'
- -
3
Smith poses here with a caribou bagged In the far north. Hunting and fishing are his favorite hobbies.