Holy cow – don’t think you can swing between two more opposite extremes than the waterfowl featured on last year’s duck stamp and the ones on this year’s.
Good-bye Ruddy Duck, hello Trumpeter Swans!
Ruddys – we call them “spuds” – are tiny, bland, stiff-tailed diving ducks that few outside the worlds of hunting and ornithology even realize exist. The revered swan is featured in film and art as depictions of beauty and grace. In flight, they are huge birds, impressive in the wild. Ruddy ducks, on the other hand, fly like skipping stones. They are really bad at being ducks.
But, that’s how this two year history of the Federal Duck Stamp Program played out.
Here’s some more info from the USFWS:
“Sales for the 2016-2017 Federal Duck Stamp and Junior Duck Stamp began on Friday, June 24, 2016 with a special event hosted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Postal Service and Bass Pro Shops at the Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World in Springfield, Missouri. Waterfowl hunters, birders, stamp collectors, conservationists and outdoor recreationists lined up to be among the first to buy the nation’s most unique and successful conservation stamp.
This year’s Federal stamp features trumpeter swans and is the work of Minnesotan Joe Hautman, and 16-year-old Stacy Shen painted the Ross’s geese that adorn this year’s Junior Duck Stamp.
A stamp purchase is required annually for all waterfowl hunters 16 and older, and grants the bearer free entrance into national wildlife refuges. The new stamps can be purchased online, at many sporting goods and retail stores, and at some post offices and national wildlife refuges. Since 1934, the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp has provided more than $850 million, conserving over 5.7 million acres of crucial habitat throughout the United States and its territories.”
