Absolutely amazing!

CHARLIE, 1989

CHARLIE, 2014

Back in 1984 I was looking for a Harlequin Duck to photograph to use in my entry to the Federal Duck Stamp contest that year. In a roundabout way I found Bill Hancock in Billings, MT who had a facility breeding rare and endangered waterfowl of all species. I went up in July and altho most of the ducks were in eclipse (molting) the Harlequin males were still looking great. At the time it was at his home but then moved to a much larger facility between Billings and Laurel.

On subsequent visits to the new place I was given a tour and came upon one of my favorite birds, a Canada Goose. His name is CHARLIE and he's a Giant Canada Goose, very large as the name indicates. All of you who get my newsletter will recognize him from the cover of every issue for the past 25 years. The top photo is that bird way back then.

Just this past week I took my baby squirrel, Ms. PIGGY, up to that same facility for a soft release in their tree laden property where other squirrels live. Sheila had raised a baby squirrel and released it there so Ms. PIGGY will have company of others of her kind. Sheila also gave me a tour and when I showed her copies of my newsletter I was in for a huge surprise. She walked me over to one of the pens and there he was, CHARLIE is still alive! That's him in the lower photo, still as handsome as ever but just like me, a bit grey around the edges and hanging in there.