FL: Hunter who killed federally-protected tundra swan at Lake Jackson agrees to plea deal

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/2025/02/25/tallahassee-hunter-pleads-no-contest-to-killing-protected-tundra-swan/80067659007/

02/25/2025

A Tallahassee hunter who reportedly gunned down a federally-protected tundra swan agreed to six months on probation and permanently forfeiting his state hunting license to resolve a misdemeanor case against him, court records show.

The man pleaded no contest earlier this month, according to documents on the Leon County Clerk of Courts website. Such a plea means a defendant does not admit guilt but also chooses not to fight the case in court. (The Tallahassee Democrat rarely names people charged in misdemeanor cases.)

He also agreed to pay $1,500 to have the migratory bird preserved for display “for educational purposes.”

Witnesses said they saw a man at Lake Jackson’s Crowder Landing last January shooting at a pair of the swans. “Tundra swans, while seen in flocks during migration, separate in solitary pairs (and) mate for life,” according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

A hunter is being investigated by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission after killing a Tundra Swan, Jan. 27, 2024.
One managed to fly away, but he tracked the other down in his kayak, finally wringing its neck and throwing it onto his boat, witnesses told the Democrat. The hunter was later questioned by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission; he told state wildlife officers he thought he “killed a snow goose,” a report said.

According to a previous news story, Elizabeth Hawkins, who was bird watching at the time, told a Tallahassee Democrat reporter: “We were screaming at him. Both birds were screaming. It was pretty distressing.”

The birds breed in northern Canada and then migrate south, but rarely do they ever end up in Florida, she said. This is possibly the third instance such birds have appeared in Leon County.