THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 29, 1996 TAG: 9609270197
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 87 lines
Saturday, Sept. 21
11 a.m. - Flight line, Oceana Naval Air Station.
The Neptune Festival Air Show is under way and the runway area is crowded with spectators as stunt pilots and military aviators perform dazzling routines overhead.
In one small section, however, attention is diverted to a smaller, slower aerobatics performer.
A single monarch butterfly has staked his claim to a section of the yellow rope that separates onlookers from participants.
Throughout the show he can be seen making graceful swoops and circles for the appreciative crowd.
A man watches the butterfly for a few moments, then offers his own interpretation of what's going on. ``Maybe he intends to ride one of those jet streams south for the winter,'' the gentleman suggests.
- Jo-Ann Clegg
11:30 a.m. - Pets Warehouse at Hilltop.
``U h-oh,'' says a male worker to the nearby cashier. ``You've had a little accident. He got you.''
The woman, who is checking out a line of customers and who has a large, colorful parrot on her shoulder, doesn't pause as she makes change.
Without even glancing at the ``accident'' her co-worker is referring to, she announces, ``You get used to it. If you're going to put them on your shoulder, they're going to poop on you.''
- Melinda Forbes
Monday, Sept. 23
10:30 a.m. - Watergate Lane.
A couple and their two children approach a small lake off the Eastern Branch of the Lynnhaven River bearing a sack of bread.
But there's something wrong: Three of the ducks waddling on the shore wear signs of cruelty - steel darts sticking in their bodies.
``What happened?'' the children want to know, disbelief clouding their eyes.
The answer is that the night before someone sneaked up on the ducks with a blowgun and took target practice on them. A white duck and two mallards are wounded, one through the neck, one through the face and one in the side.
Dad, a big guy who looks like an athletic coach, doesn't wait for someone else to take action.
Luring the white duck with bread crumbs, he lunges for the animal like a linebacker and pins it to the ground. And in almost the same motion, he grabs the green-tipped dart - which is protruding clear through the duck's neck - and yanks it free.
The duck paddles away with two companions, and the hint of blood on its white feathers quickly washes away.
- Paul Clancy
Tuesday, Sept. 24
7:30 p.m. - Pembroke Meadows Elementary School.
A group of boys and their parents gather in the cafeteria to be introduced into the world of Boy Scouting.
Jim Brickley, leader of Pack 475, is explaining to the group the meaning behind BSA (Boy Scouts of America). After his presentation is finished he suggests that the group stand up and take an exercise break.
He asks for all the boys, from grades one through five, to come stand in a line in front of the group.
As the boys walk forward, one child asks, ``Are we in trouble?''
- Patty Jenkins
Thursday, Sept. 26
Noon - The newspaper office.
A telephone caller wants to report that another duck has been shot with a dart - this time in the Laskin Road area.
This incident follows one earlier in the week where three ducks were found with darts sticking in them in a Kings Grant lake.
The caller, an animal rehabilitator, says she can't understand why anyone would do such a thing. ``It sounds like a copy cat person to me,'' she says sadly.
- Paul Clancy ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by STEVE EARLEY
Sarah Van Schaick, left, a senior from Rexford, N.Y., and Dena
Kimball, a junior from Virginia Beach, enjoy a warm fall day on
Wednesday while relaxing between classes at Virginia Wesleyan
College.
Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
A female mallard with a dart through its head stands on the shore of
a lake off Watergate Lane in the Kings Grant section. by CNB