“Gianfranco Capoccia, known as Gianni, is a passionate hunter, one of those who were“ born hunters ”and therefore we understand each other well, since I too am of that“ breed ”. But like all people, it's certainly not just that. First of all he is the guardian of a wonderful family, he is a friend of true and affectionate friends, even if at times a little… .goliardic. And it is much more, including the Mayor of the municipality of Serralunga, as well as one of the founders of the Arci Caccia in the province of Cuneo and responsible for the hunting sworn guards of this association.
On the evening of January 22, around 18.30 pm, he is leaving the town hall and the intense snowfall, which has been going on for several hours now, envelops him as soon as he is outside the door of the historic building. He tightens his jacket and, with the expert eye of the connoisseur of nature and its inhabitants, that eye that especially hunters possess, he sees a shadow in the snow that approaches him floating in the cold air.
Instinctively he recognizes it immediately but rationally finds it hard to believe. Yet it is her! The queen of the wood, as the woodcock is defined by hunters. More than a real migrator, a wandering species, which seeks, depending on the season and weather conditions, favorable habitats, which has a very vast distribution range, that is a good part of northern Europe, Russia and Asia , in areas, fortunately for him, mostly wild and in any case not suitable for lucrative activities and intensive exploitation of habitats and natural resources which feed the unbridled consumerism of a part of humanity. During the winter season it also arrives in Italy and other Mediterranean countries.
It lands right at the feet of Gianni, his majesty, confused perhaps by the heavy snow but, more realistically, by the public lights of the town that shine in an anomalous way among the flakes that fall thickly. Gianni picks it up, examines it just enough to understand that it is not injured and puts it away warm and safe under the flaps of his jacket. Phone calls are triggered immediately. I am the first to be warned, since my friend knows well how many emotions that gift of nature arouses in me, for me wonderful and full of mystery.
I warn Piero Mollo that, despite his age that is no longer very green and the build not really that of a La Scala dancer, he remains a passionate and romantic chaser of goblins and ghosts, which is precisely the woodcock, given his elusive behavior and the enormous difficulty in finding it in the dense and inhospitable woods, for man, instead congenial to it.
Obviously, the capture is immediately communicated to the State Forestry Corps, in the person of the commander of the Alba Station, Carlo Muò, a person of an uncommon human and professional depth.
Finally, the woodcock is welcomed by the skilled hands of Mimmo Ferro, a passionate and well-known ornithologist at a regional and national level. With him we move from admiration and childish comments to technical and scientific questions. The wing measures 203 mm, the beak is very long, 88,5 mm… a record ?? who knows !!…., the weight is 285 gr., and from the examination of the plumage the expert deduces that it is a young subject, hatched in the past year.
The specimen has no malformations, anomalies or wounds. Mimmo therefore provides to ring it with the mark "INBS - OZZANO - BO - H 11135 ?, placed on the right leg and at 21.45 the woodcock" of Gianni ", which has become of all of us, is released in an area where the snow is not arrived and, from the weather forecast, it would seem not to go down soon. Fantastic experience, perhaps unrepeatable and now thanks! Thanks to Gianni, Piero, Carlo, Mimmo. To the Eternal Father, for those who are believers or to Mother Nature, for those who are not, who gave us birth with this passion that makes us first of all true naturalists and environmentalists in the field, always attentive, not only "on Sundays" or "for the living room" or "for fashion".
Thanks then, indeed, above all, to his majesty the woodcock that allows some of us to experience emotions that are difficult to explain and share, and to those gifts, to those renewable resources, such as, for example, all game, the fish of the waters, mushrooms, truffles, wild fruits of the woods, which even today, those who know how to live rurality and nature with passion and respect, know and manage to grasp, as has always happened, both actually with their hands, to delight the senses of taste, or even just with the eyes, to comfort the spirit and the mind.
Good luck to the hunters and best regards to all people of common sense!
"
Ezio Cardinal
Provincial President Arci Caccia - Cuneo
(January 25, 2013)
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