Delaware Nature Society Program Guide and Newsletter September - December 2017 | Page 23

Every fall, students and their parents gather at
Ashland Nature Center for the series of seven
weeknight Young Waterfowlers classes. A team
of volunteer instructors from the community, with
more than 200 combined years of waterfowling
under their wader belts, lead the students through
hands-on activities that are fun and exciting.
Youngsters test their skills by blowing a goose
call, carving a cork duck decoy, and training a
retrieving dog. The State of Delaware’s Hunter
Education course is taught in conjunction with
the class, and students may choose to receive
their hunter safety certification upon completion
of the class.
The Young Waterfowlers program successfully
brings together a large group of young men
and women (ages 10 to 16) each season, and
many return year after year to be part of the
Advanced Young Waterfowlers. Many graduates
of the program return to the class to help out
as assistant instructors. Delaware Nature
Society shares the leadership of the program
with the Brandywine Red Clay Alliance, an
environmental organization based in Unionville,
PA, that is dedicated to environmental education
and watershed conservation.
“The partnership between Delaware Nature
Society and Brandywine Red Clay Alliance
(BRC) is one of the reasons for the long-standing
success of the Young Waterfowlers program”
says Jim Jordan, Executive Director of the BRC.
“The partnership enables us to offer the program
to a much broader audience, in addition to
attracting instructors who have a vast amount of
knowledge and expertise in different disciplines.”
Chris Buccini, a DelNature member and active
local businessman, joined his two sons as
participants in the program for the first time
during the fall 2016 class. He says, “the program
brought us together to work toward a goal –
getting out to enjoy waterfowl hunting together
as a family. We invested our time in the program
and built a foundation for a lifelong activity.”
Field trips on Sundays help the students
prepare for the waterfowl season. A visit to the
Ommelanden Range in New Castle is when
participants test their skills with shotgun shooting
under the tutelage of certified instructors. Jim
Jordan and John Campanelli, founders of the
Young Waterfowlers program, bring decades
of safe shooting instruction to help youngsters
master the skill of breaking a clay target.
A trip to the Bombay Hook refuge to gather
grasses and camouflage the hunting blinds
provides lessons in mastering the art of
concealment. The Waterfowl Identification field
trip takes the Young Waterfowlers families on a
tour of the Delaware Bayshore from Delaware
City all the way down to Bombay Hook, with
stops at natural areas to scan wetlands with a
spotting scope. The excitement of seeing a wide
variety of ducks, geese, and swans is amplified
by the additional sightings of wildlife like deer,
foxes, and even a close encounter with a Snowy
Owl one year. Chris Buccini notes that the
trips are “really educational and an excellent
introduction to the topics of conservation, habitat
management, and wildlife identification.”
And so we return to Bombay Hook where we
started our story:
An entire Fall season of classes and
field trips prepared them for this day
– both a graduation and initiation into
the world of waterfowling. A flock of
Green-winged Teal banks hard to
the right of the blind and powers into
the North wind. A Black Duck quacks
loudly nearby, as the decoys bob
gently in the water. Smiles flash as
the youngsters prepare for the arrival
of waterfowl joined by their guide,
with their parents watching over their
shoulders. Two generations together
outdoors, connected by the tradition
of waterfowling.
Derek Stoner serves as a volunteer leader for the
Young Waterfowlers program, after a fifteen-year
career on staff with Delaware Nature Society.
He is a published author and photographer for
many conservation-focused publications.
Delaware Nature Society
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