The Snipe Hunt

Well, last week was Girls Camp, and I think the highlight for me was our Snipe hunt. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. About 5-10 years ago, there was a young woman in our ward who got so scared on a snipe hunt that she wet her pants. Therefore, snipe hunts have been taboo in our ward for a long time. However, we decided to lift the ban and have ourselves a grand old time. We especially enjoyed the fact that only a handful of girls knew what a snipe hunt is.
We began our adventure by giving all of the girls a handful of peanuts to sprinkle out in a field near the cabin. We told them that snipes LOVE peanuts, and would be drawn to the scent. Then, when the time for the hunt drew near, the girls painted themselves with peanut butter to mask their own scent and to again, draw the snipes out.
Amazingly, there was a bird-call book at the cabin which had a woodland snipe, complete with bird-call. So we spent the afternoon before the snipe hunt teaching the girls the call of the "Uintah Snipe" in order to lure the cute little creatures (a cross between a quail and a chipmunk) out into the open.
We also told the girls that the birds would be blinded by any flashlights, due to their nocturnal nature, and so they shouldn't have any lights on.
I had an armadillo puppet, and while the girls were out in the middle of the field, crouched low, waving their peanut butter-streaked wrists about, holding pillow cases to catch the snipes, and cawing at the top of their lungs, I put the puppet on my hand, cradled it close to my body, and told the girls they could touch it, but to be very quiet because the poor little snipe was "shaking like crazy," it was so nervous.
After I had caught a couple, we decided to go back to the campfire for s'mores, but half of the girls opted out of the sweet treat in favor of more hunting.
On the final morning, I let all the girls in on the secret, telling them about our puppet-snipe, and made them promise to keep the tradition alive with the incoming beehives.
Sadly, I don't know if that will ever happen again, though, because Sunday in her talk, one of the "believers" told the story in Sacrament meeting.....I guess I'll just have to hope that nobody was listening!