Goose hunter tip leads to charges in Tioga County

On March 4, Environmental Conservation Officer Brent Wilson was on patrol checking goose hunters looking to fill their bag limits late in the season. Passing a cornfield in the town of Tioga, Officer Wilson observed a group hunting over a flooded field. 

According to a release received by the Department of Environment Conservation, Officer Wilson checked their hunting licenses, guns, and the geese harvested. One of the hunters provided a tip to the officer concerning the shooting of a swan earlier in the day. 

Officer Wilson contacted Environmental Conservation Officer Stan Winnick to see if he could assist with evidence collection. The two officers then canvassed the area. 

An area resident told the officers his son-in-law was hunting with a friend that morning and that they shot a snow goose. He provided the name and address.

Officers Wilson and Winnick then carefully walked the field and collected a spent shotgun shell. 

With this information and evidence, the officers tracked down the man, who admitted that he “had made a mistake.” The subject told the officers, according to the release, that he thought the bird was a snow goose, but when he got home and did some research, he realized it was a tundra swan. 

The man disposed of the carcass down a dirt road. 

Also known as a whistling swan, the tundra swan is a protected species for which there is no hunting season. The birds nest in the arctic and are only found in New York during the winter periods of migration. 

Officers Wilson and Winnick issued the hunter three summonses for taking a migratory bird out of season, illegally taking a protected species, and for unlawful disposal of solid waste.