Got checked by the warden today!!

[CAWoodduck]

While cleaning some waterers and getting the brooder ready for some hatching
Coturnix quail, i got paid a visit by a CA gamewarden. She reported that someone
called in that they seen wood ducks flying around in a pen at my address. She
asked if i had the domestic game breeders permit, i retrieved it along with my
Federal permit and other proper paperwork. After looking it over we strolled
over to the pen where she inspected it. She then asked what i am going to do
with the ducks, i replied i am going to sell the babies if i am lucky enough to
have a good hatch. She was a really cool warden and we had conversation how my
duck season was and where i hunted, she also asked if i had been out turkey
hunting yet and i replied not yet as i am on-call at work. She also made mention
that if i was hiding my ducks, then why would my 30' x 30' pen be out in the
wide open field where everyone could see it! She told me to have a nice day and
went about her business.

So, if you live where you are required to have a permit for wildfowl, you better
be on the up and up, you never know when a nosy passer by might try and be a
doogooder!!.............Jason

[Evy]

In my case, it was a vindictive neighbor after I reported him for stomping one of his animals to death. It does pay to always have your paperwork in order. Good job, Jason

[goosedragon]

I got visited twice Once was because my neighboor (spelling intentional) saw me using a stick to prevent my silly white china X african goose from sticking her head into my lawn mower while it was running. The warden approached me later while I was still mowing and when he left his car she came off her nest under the rose bush in the front yard to see what he was all about. He said "I don't know what that is but it isn't a Canada!" I explained her mutt status and he told me why he was there but wouldn't let on to where the complaint came from. I took him down to the duck pen so he see that my ducks were all domestics as long as he was there.
The second time, I had a small hawk become badly entangled in the netting I always put up when I have goslings or ducklings. I cut around and took the net and all to the local chapter of Raptor Rescue where they spent more time picking on me for "causing the problem" then they did with the hawk. Same warden out to check on me trapping Hawks. He said I thought the address was familiar as I took him down to the duck pen to see how I was using net to protect my babies. He said there was nothing wrong with what I was doing and noticed the huge red tailed Hawk nest in the tree back there. He asked if I knew what it was and I replied that the red tailed had been using it as long as I had lived there and the fact that they were still there sort of indicated that I wasn't anti-hawk. I also pointed out that it would have been easier for me to let the small hawk die in the net or kill it, than what I had done. ~gd