Life's been slipping by at a seemingly ever increasing rate. While I hope there's still plenty ahead, there's certainly enough behind for meaningful reflection.

Thing's have generally been good, with just enough disappointments along the way to keep me prepared for them, and to keep me from getting too confident. This has been equally true both for life in general and for my avicultural experience. You'll notice from the following however, that only a small amount of the credit for my avicultural good fortune is really mine, as I've been blest with good partners, good family, good friends and good helpers almost every step of the way.

My bird rearing began at about the age of 12, thanks to the friendship of Jake Kraft, a retired New Jersey Wildlife Agent. I'd been using forays into the north Jersey meadowlands, a large tidal wetland, as a way of expressing my maleness in a house full of women. Jake introduced me to hunting and fishing, and provided my first waterfowl, a pair of call ducks. My introduction to predation began when their ducklings were all taken by snapping turtles and then the renesting hen was taken by an oppossum. I'll never forget that "possum" because after I trapped it per Jake's instructions I locked it overnight in his outhouse. By morning it had escaped by gnawing clear through his outhouse wall and I caught bloody hell.

Twice my fledgling waterfowl and pheasant collection survived thanks to the care of my sisters and mom, first during my stint in the marines, and again when after college I moved cross-country to Seattle. Within a couple of months of that move my black ducks and wood ducks were shipped, along with my hunting dogs, and my collection grew slowly and steadily from there.

One of the first things I did when moving to the northwest was to visit Chuck & June Pilling. Chuck was one of the waterfowl breeding greats that I'd read about with admiration since I was a youngster. He was recognized world-wide for his first breeding accomplishments with Buffleheads and Hooded Mergansers, and later would be honored again for his accomplishments with Harlequins. That friendship has lasted 36 years, and has often been instrumental in keeping me "pumped" when things get a little rough. I could never thank Chuck and June enough for all the friendship, help and advice they've provided along the way. For years they've been my northwest family.

One weekend when I arrived I found Cap strangely quiet. Eventually he broke the news that he had terminal cancer. He asked if I'd be interested in purchasing the farm at an extremely fair price, in return for finding a permanent way to protect the rest of the sanctuary. I said yes, and Northwest Wildfowl Farm was born. The rest of the sanctuary was deeded to our Wildlife Department as the Corson Natural Area. Cap died 2 months later.

As my waterfowl collection continued to grow, I gradually became more involved in avicultural organizations such as the IWWA and the AP&WS. The opportunity to learn from accomplished breeders such as Sir Peter Scott, Dr Jean Delacour and Mike and Ali Lubbock only added to my excitement and interest. Thanks to friends like Chuck Pilling, Warren Hancock and Frank Todd I was able to acquire some of my early difficult-to-rear species. When I needed an extra pair of hands to help building an aviary or plant a goose pasture, good friends like Jon & Reine Huntsman, Bruce Smith and Nick Nickerson always seemed to show up at the right time.  Writing this I get excited (again) about all the fine people I've met.

At one of the IWWA conventions Walt Sturgeon and I decided to team up on an egg/duckling/gosling collecting trip to the Seward Peninsula in the Alaskan arctic. As we researched the permits and native authorizations, collecting locations, equipment needed and transportation options our excitement grew. There were many cross country phone calls.

I found Walt to be a serious but reliable and hard working partner in the field, and thanks to his gosling carrier design a majority of the babies we collected in 1981 and 1983 survived the trip. Many of the birds in my collection are still descended from those collected goslings, cygnets and cranes.

It was about this time when Doug Yearout, a young veterinary graduate from Washington State University set up a practice in my area. He had a keen interest in avian medicine and wildlife rehabilitation, and soon became a good friend as well as providing excellent medical service to my collection. I tried to return his friendship by assisting him through a few rough spots in his rehab work. He has been a true friend and a great asset in my ability to get past some serious problems such as amelloidosis, coccidiosis and a deadly adeno virus in Brant, and aspergillosis in my eiders. At first it took a great amount of patience on both our parts to understand each others points of view so we could move forward to solve these problems.

At a Trumpeter Swan Society conference in Victoria I had the good fortune to meet Hugh Boyd, then the chief biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service. Among subjects we discussed was my successful breeding of a female light bellied Brant from the flock that winters in Padilla Bay, Washington. The female I bred had been brought to me six or seven years earlier by a wildlife agent as a cripple, along with two males collected by the agent after the hunting season. Hugh was very interested in this breeding as he had studied this population of Brant on Melville Island in Canada's high arctic several years earlier. He encouraged me to continue trying to breed these birds, but admitted long term outlook for my success would be limited without additional bloodlines. He indicated that if I was interested in traveling up to Melville Island the next year, that it may be possible to get a permit to collect a small number of eggs or goslings.

Thats all it took to set the wheels in motion. At that fall's IWWA conference I mentioned it to Eldon Pace, easily the top breeder of Light Bellied Brant in the world. His eyes lit up and the planning for the first of our two high arctic collecting adventures began that very minute. Eldon is a very special individual and friend, and my respect and admiration for him only strengthened during our two high arctic expeditions. Even though he was over 60 and had undergone open heart surgery he was as good a field partner as a person could hope for.

Eldon and I were joined by Rick Ortlieb from the Kortright collection on the first high arctic trip and by Walt Sturgeon on the second. On the first we concentrated on collecting eggs with only limited success, while on the second we were successful in collecting our allowed quota of goslings. We also were successful on the second trip in banding and installing transmitters on a few flightless brant. We drove the moulted birds into nets we had erected on the shoreline using a helicopter. I'll never forget our surprise at the gaunt condition of these birds, causing us to be very discriminating about which birds we provided with transmitters. our judgment must have been OK, as later that year one of our radio-equipped Brant was tracked thousands of miles away in the vicinity of Cold Bay Alaska.

Our success on Melleville Island spurred Eldon, Walt & I into action, and in 1988 we applied for and received a permit to collect Eiders, Old Squaw and Atlantic Brant on Southampton Island in Hudson Bay. We were successful with the Brant and also managed to collect a few Northern and King Eider eggs. The King Eider hen that has provided my most prolific offspring came from that collection, and I am now enjoying her grand children. I also have raised two generations from the Northerns.

Then in 1989 something earthshaking happened in my life. While on an assignment in the Seychelles, a thousand miles off the coast of Kenya, I met Lynn. I simply walked up to her and asked her to dance. We danced, then talked, and danced and talked some more. The next day we went snorkeling and shortly after I invited her to come to the US to see my farm and birds. In 1991 we got engaged in South Africa (during another assignment), and in 1992 she became my wife. She's been a marvelous partner and confidant, often seeing a way forward when I've gotten bogged down with details and problems.

During this same time period Arnold and Debbie Schouten became our good friends. Arnold was one of the youngest highly successful waterfowl breeders I had met, and had gained considerable valuable experience rehabilitating oiled and injured seaducks. The first of the collection scandals involving waterfowl breeders in the arctic had occurred and we could see the handwriting on the wall. If we didn't get permits to go up and collect seaducks and additional brant bloodlines soon, it might prove to be too late. We were right. In 1991 and again in 1993 Arnold, Debbie, Lynn and I traveled to the north slope of Alaska to collect small numbers of Brant, King Eiders and Old Squaw. We had limited success in 91, and did much better in 93. Even the presence of numerous oil wells, and being kept away from our boat by a marauding grizzly couldn't spoil the arctic beauty. Both Arnold and I have bred both the Kings and the Old Squaw we collected, and I have done quite well with the new Brant bloodlines. While in the Prudhoe Bay area of Alaska we came to know Jim & Teena Helmericks, fine hosts and arctic guides, and accomplished aviculturists. Generous advice on breeding and rearing King and Spectacled Eiders, as well as Old Squaws has been provided by both Jane Dawson and john Prentice from Scotland.

Spring 2000 brought a nice surprise and some new friends into my life.  The USFW Service had some abandoned eggs of the threatened Stellers Eider.  Due to their status it was important that they be saved if possible. Although they could probably never be released into the wild they might be able to contribute to the recovery effort in other ways. The eggs were brought down from the arctic, and I had the honor of raising three of the rarest north american waterfowl for them.  I can only hope that in some small way I contributed to saving this beautiful species. I was really heartened by the dedication and professionalism of the wildlife researchers involved.

So you can see, if I'm to be credited with anything in this waterfowl world, its being smart enough to surround myself with some of the nicest and most generous people in the world. I've been truly blest.

Paul & Lynn Dye
Northwest Wildfowl Farm
10114 54th Place N.E., Everett, WA 98205 USA

Phone:(425)334-8223 Fax:(425)397-8136
E-mail: dye@greatnorthern.net