ROB BROWN

Loony behaviour

E HOVERED over the realm of

dragons and damsels. He heard the

screaming and moved in the direc-

tion from whence it came, sitting
low in the water peering over the waves with
ted eyes,

Webb spotted him first.

"Damn, there he is again," he muttered.

I looked up from the green weeds a fathom
below, squinted into the light, then spotted his
black neck.

"This is learned behaviour," pronounced
Webb.

The Loon was close now. He bobbed in the
waves expectantly.

"It’s the male, I’m sure. He’s a lot bigger than
the other bird."

"He’s a lot bolder too," said Webb. “G’wan,’
beat it!’

My rod bent as a trout fastened on to my seal
fur shrimp.

"He just dove," said Webb bitterly. "He’s
going to put the fish down again."

I hustled the Gish io the net, straining the light
-tippet to the breaking point, then hoisted the
trout from the water as the loon flew through it
like a monstrous speckled toad.

"Look at that," shouted Webb, " He’s swim-
Ming tight under the boat!"

I jooked down and caught a glimpse of the
giant bird prowling over the marl before it dis-
appeared into a preen prism.

‘We are predators: ‘The bird is a predator. The

“day before he had watched with interest as the
two-headed yellow animal with long slender
arms caught trout after trout, scooped them
from the water, swallowed them, then spit them
out, alive and stunned,

To the bird this was baffling behaviour;. after
all, this great, yellow fish catching competitor
had no young nearby. Why, then, was it
tegurgitaling its catch. He did not ponder this
oddity long. If the giant yellow creature with the
‘offset paddling appendages was going to persist
in hobbling its prey, he was going to gobble as
many momentarily disoriented rainbows as he
could.

The bird learned the yellow paddler was not -

indifferent to it’s presence when the creature
paddled ashore, retumed to the lake, then began
firing hard round objects al him every time he

swam near it After this demonstration of :

malevolence he chose to keep his distance,

I turned to Webb, "I’m sure it’s the same bird,

He’s forgotten the rocks, or his hunger has got-
ten the best of him."

We downed rods, knelt and paddled vigorous-
ly to Big Fish Bay. The loon did-not follow. The
fishing picked up again. More often than not we
had two leaping trout on simultaneously.

The orgy lasted for an hour, then I hooked
what appeared to be an average sized trout. Sud-
denly, the fish took off like a thing possessed.
"Must be a whale!" I shouted.

"The loon!" hollered Webb.

The fish veered toward us, il’s worst, night-
mare come true: me dragging it in at dhe end
and a loon attempting to devour it at the other. 1
reeled. frantically. We watched in horror as the
loon caught up to the poor fish and clamped
down on it. ] gave a mighty yank and pulled the
trout out of the loon’s beak. Minutes laler the
fish was in the net. It was more dead than alive. .
’ "Maybe if you feed if to the loon he'll be full
and leave us alone."

It was worth a try. I threw the fish out into the
lake where it lay twitching belly up. The loon
dove and swam about madly, on more than one
occasion passing the fish by inches, His mate
showed up but neither of them could find the
fish. We realized that their hunting posture did
not include looking up. They became frustrated
and began squabbling with each other. —

"That’s why they’re called loons, Doug," I

_ said,

While the loons finished their domestic dis-

* pute an osprey that had been watching the pro-
- ceedings from the brush on the shoreline zeroed

- in on the hapless trout.

As Webb, the Joons, and [ watched she

climbed, crying and gyrating, but she did not -

_ Stoop. The reason for her hesitancy appeared in
the form of an immature bald eagle winging
determinedly toward the fish.

_ "The bigger bird circled three times, snatched

* the trout from the water, and few back inlo the
woods oblivious to the osprey swooping. vi-

ciously at its head,.
Back at camp we ate beans and all-beef

: Wieners, then washed them down with beer as

- Box Car Willic.sang The Great Speckled Bird.
We'd seen some wonderful sights on 1 this elto- -

‘fishing trip,

TERRACE ‘STANDARD. :

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, July 20, 1994 - C1

oo : “SECTION Cc
MALCOLM BAXTER 638-7283

‘ervais’ gloves golden

LOCAL BOXER Brian Gervais,
15, made his first trip to the na-
licnal Junior championships a
memorable one.

He was one of only two B.C.
lcam members to come away
from Grande Prairie, Alta. with a
gold medal,

And he didn’t have to spend
much time in the ring to earn the
75kg Junior C division crown.

Because there are not a lot of
fighters in his class, he only got
two bouls at the event, and the
opener never got out of the first ©
round.

In that one he faced New
Brunswicker Peter Hazen who
only lasted one minute and fifteen
seconds, the referee stopping the
contest after having to give
Hazen a second standing eight
count.

Surprisingly, perhaps, Gervais
was one of those unhappy with ,.
the decision.

“He could have gone the dis-
tance,’? Gervais said of his op-
ponent. ‘'The fight shouldn’t
have been slopped. He was a
good boxer,’’ he added,

Gervais then had to wait three
days for his next ring appearance,

“the gold medal match against

Manuel Cacilhas of Ontario,

That one did go the distance,
Gervais winning 12-2 on the
computer scoring system.

After the bout, Cacithas asked
for a remaich and that’s now the
plan. It will likely take place in
September, the Ontarian flying
out io B.C. for the first tourna-
ment of the new season.

For Gervais, the gold was a per-
fect ending to what had often
been a frustrating season.

“It was hard to find fights at
my age/weight,’’ he, recalled, .‘'T
only had three fights through the
entire year.”’ That, he “added,
translated to about 10 minutes of
competition.

He. found. himself i in the much
the same situation in the run up to

MICHAEL BOVINGDON of
Kitimat and Anita Bush of
Smithers pushed their way
through the heat to take the indi-
vidual male and female titles at

‘the 8th Annual Skeena Valley

Triathlon July 10.

Athletes sweated their way
through a 1.5 km swim in Lakelse
Lake at Furlong Bay, a 40 km

cycle from Furlong Bay io the -..

four-way siop near the old Ter-
tace bridge and back, followed by
a 10 km mun.

Bovingdon beat eight other
athletes in the men’s event with a
time of 2:26:55.

Following behind him was
Dave LeBlanc of Smithers with a
time of 2:29:27 for a second
place, up eight spots from his
10th place finish last year.

In third place was Kitimat’s
Kelly Marsh at 2:30:31, moving
up four spots fom his 7th place
in 1993,

Bush pushed set her own pace
as the only competitor in the indi-
vidual female category.

She crossed the finish line with
a time of 2:45:26.

But this was the year of the
teams at the triathlon,

Fiflyseven of the 67
participants were members of two
and three-person teams dividing
up the swimming, cycling and
‘Tanning events.

Finishing with the best overall
time of 2:12:22 was the mixed
team of swimmmer Erin Kearley,
cyclist Gregory Brown and run-
ner Terry Tsangaris.

The fastest women’s team of
Iris. Unger, Ester Bahen and
Paddy Graetz came in at 2:36:26.

First in the men’s team event
was Daniel Anthony, Mikko «
Jaakkola and Dale Young witha -
2:12:23 finish,

While one runner found the

“heat too much and was treated for

heat stroke, the weather did not

~ disappoint — triathlon organizer. .
: ae Warner, .

_ Cont'd on Page C2:

the nationals. The only Terrace
club member still in training, he
had the problem of no one to spar
with

So while in excellent physical
shape, he was concerned he’d be
a little off because of the lack of
ring action.

That was solved by coach Jeff
Dilley. ‘‘Every night we'd go six
rounds,’’ Gervais said, ‘Hard
rounds, too.”’

And the result in Grand Prairie
proved that effort had been worth
it.

The local club is taking its sum-
mer break now, but Gervais says
he’ll definitely be back for the
new season.

“ve tried about every sport
there is but this is the only one
I’ve stayed with for more than
one year,”’ he says, “‘I love it.”

And one of the reasons he does
will probably sound strange to a
lot-of people: it’s the friendliest
Sport he’s found.

Unlike some of the others he’s
tried, he likes the sportsmanship
he finds among boxers.

“Is not like Rocky where
everybody hates each other.” The
boxers may be throwing punches
at each other throughout the bout,
but once it’s over there’s no
animosity,

“Tm really good friends with
most of the guys I’ve fought.”
And with boxing being a small
fraternity, tournaments are in part
a get-together of buddies, he
adds,

If boxing is thinking about find-
ing an ambassador, it could do
worse than hire Brian Gervais.

akkkkk

There was a Terrace connection
with B.G's other gold, won by

‘Keith Gurski in the-71kg division,

_ Although from Prince Rupert,

Gurski’s travelled with the Ter-
‘race club before.

He stopped Pascal Guertin of
Quebec in the first round of the

final. '

“NATIONAL CHAMP in his Junior © division, Brian Gervais de.

scribes boxing as one where sportsmanship is the norm.

Team 38.C. also picked up two

Revelstoke and two bronzes, a

silvers through Jon Agar of fair haul for a seven member

Kelowna and Clinton O'Neill of

Three flavours of sweat _

‘squad.

| MICHAEL BOVINGDON of Kitimat ran through the archway as the fastest Individual mal aiete
1 with 4 time-of 2:26:66 at this year’s 6th Annual Skeena Valley Triathton. Sixty-seven
~ Peted hi in the, July 10 event at Furlong Bay, a disappointing turnout for organizer