A few days ago, I decided to go trail walking among the falling and yet-to-fall autumn leaves. At the trailhead, I noticed a list of Vermont's Hunting and Trapping Dates. Although I hadn't heard any gunshots, I realized that was probably the last thought JFK, MLK, and Theo Van Gogh all had (although Theo had enough time for a follow-up think: "nobody kills the village idiot," since his assassin only shot him off his bicycle and, then, dispatched him with a knife).
As I got out my reading glasses, I looked down at myself (wearing exclusively subdued colors except for a splash of color on my hat) and read that bow season was already open for deer, and black bear season had been open for more than six weeks. Which caused me to feel both stupid-lucky and stupid-foolish at the same time – I'd walked in different wooded areas every one of those past weeks not wearing bright colors but with bear spray on my hip.
Driving away, I considered what the odds were of being killed by a human compared to being killed by a black bear (and decided it was statistically more probable to be murdered, by at-least a factor of 100). Then I wondered at the increased odds of being "accidentally shot" by a drunk, stoned, Vermont hunter, during bear hunting season, while wearing a black sweater (and decided it was smart I chose not hiking to Preston Lake that day).
One line on the list of hunting season dates stuck and wouldn't let go of my shadow:
Crow JAN 18 thru APR 8 and AUG 19 thru DEC 16: Open FRI – MON Only; Closed TUE – THR
It seems that it is illegal to hunt crows mid-week in this state. What logic-based data (presumably, closed hunting dates are decided on nesting dates) would support only hunting four days a week?
The federal government regulates an annual maximum number of days in which every state is permitted to allow the hunting of migratory birds. Vermont Dept of Fish and Wildlife disagrees with the categorization of crows as migratory (considers them a nuisance) and closes "crow season" every mid-week so as to appear to adhere to the letter of the federal regulation.
other Vermont to-see's:
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