MassWildlife technician Kalina Flood of Worthington met hunters at the deer check station in Huntington during the first week of shotgun season, which runs from Dec. 2 to Dec. 13.
Reminder Publishing photo by Amy Porter
HUNTINGTON — Some hunters checking their deer at the weigh station in the parking lot of 22 E. Main St. outside of B&D’s the first week of shotgun season were surprised to meet MassWildlife technician Kalina Flood of Worthington at the scale in place of stewardship biologist Jacob Morris-Siegel, who manned the station for the past 16 years.
Flood said she heard it all from the hunters, but was up to the challenge. “I expected the comments on the first day,” she said, adding, “I’m just glad to be here.”
All deer harvested during the first week of the shotgun deer season, which lasts from Dec. 2 to Dec. 13, must be brought to an official check station for biological data collection. Licensed hunters can receive two buck tags for antlered deer a year, and may also apply for an antlerless tag. The data collected includes age, weight, number of antler points, and antler beam diameter,
Flood said the week started off strong with 18 deer coming in on Monday, mostly from the surrounding hilltowns. “There were a lot from Chester and Blandford — all right in this area,” including Worthington, Becket, Otis, Montgomery, Middlefield, Russell, Cummington, Easthampton and Westfield. The biggest deer brought in on the first day was a 4-point 180-pound buck caught in Blandford.
Three hours before closing on Saturday, Dec. 7, the last day of check-in, 52 deer had been brought into the Huntington station, just shy of the 55 total in 2023. At that time, 180-pounds was still the largest.
This is the first time Flood has worked the Huntington station, but not the first time she has weighed deer. Previously, she worked at the fish hatchery in Sunderland, where there is also a check station.
Flood said she joined MassWildlife two and a half years ago, after trying for a decade before that. She said it seems longer. “I’ve done so much in these two years.”
Flood attended Framingham State University, where she received a biology degree with a concentration in wildlife. She worked for about a decade in nine-month seasonal positions, three years of which she spent in North Carolina, before she snagged the job at MassWildlife. “It took 10 years to land a full-time job. This is definitely my dream job,” she said.
After transferring from the fish hatchery last winter, she talked about one fawn call she answered that took her to assist in capturing orphan fawns at the Pittsfield Municipal Airport. “Not many people get to hold a fawn,” she said.
“We get a lot of wildlife rehab calls — bats, owls, hawks. Somebody picked it up, dropped it off at a police station.” Flood said she arrives with a cat carrier and takes the animal to one of the agency’s wildlife rehabilitators, like Tom Ricardi of Conway, a retired Environmental Police officer who has been caring for injured hawks, owls, falcons and eagles for decades.
“Getting to work with him has been an absolute gift,” she said.
Another job Flood has had is trapping bear in their dens and collaring them. She said during winter, they use radio telemetry to collect biometric data on the population, and communicate the information to the state’s furbearer biologist Dave Wattles. “That happens statewide. We’ll start again after the deer check,” she said.
Flood said what she loves the most about the job is interacting with people over their love of wildlife. On the way to the deer check, she was pulled over by Northern Tree Service to check a raccoon they had encountered. She said the raccoon was scared, but otherwise fine. “Most people are good-hearted. They love seeing wildlife.”
On the first day at the deer check, John McDonald, environmental science department chair at Westfield State University, brought some of his students to meet her and talk about how she got into her career. McDonald was a state deer biologist in the 1990s, she said.
“I am a product of the state school system. There is a pathway here,” Flood said.
The full list of 2025 Huntington Season dates is available at mass.gov/masswildlife.
