Just past a cloudy, windy dawn in the Everglades last Saturday, Lt. Dave Bingham parked his shiny, new, silver airboat between two wax myrtles in an attempt to conceal it.

Moments later, the early morning quiet was ripped by a thunderous, mechanical rumbling sound in the distance. Despite the high decibel level, Bingham, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission law enforcement officer, had to use binoculars to pinpoint the source.

``Hear 'em?'' Bingham said. ``It sounds like the forest is moving.''

His companion lifted the field glasses to the horizon and spotted what looked like an open-decked, M-1 tank with four orange-clad men wielding shotguns bumping along a tree line.

Then, from the opposite direction, came another distant rumbling sound that suddenly stopped. Multiple gunshots cut through the motor noise in the vast, sawgrass meadow.

Bingham stayed where he was -- waiting for his FWC colleague, pilot Chris Colon, to conduct a flyover. At least eight other FWC officers in airboats and all-terrain vehicles were fanned out across the marsh or patrolling in pickups on the elevated dirt levees.

``This was all hands on deck for us,'' Bingham said.

The FWC officers were conducting a special enforcement detail for opening weekend of track hunting season in three South Florida wildlife management areas -- Holey Land, Rotenberger and Everglades & Francis S. Taylor. Through Nov. 22, as many as 80 large, bulldozer-like vehicles known as ``tracks'' will fan out across the three public hunting grounds in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties so their occupants can try to kill a legal buck.

UNIQUE EXPERIENCE

Track hunting is unique to the Everglades. While hunters elsewhere in the state sit quietly in tree stands or sneak around the woods on foot to try to bag a deer, South Florida's track hunters use noise and speed to try to flush animals concealed in tall marsh grass or hiding behind thickets of oak and willow on the higher tree islands.

The vehicles are large and loud and look intimidating -- some flashy, some drab -- many fabricated from the parts of surplus Army tanks and farm equipment that can reach speeds of up to 35 mph -- even over dense vegetation and thick muck.

But even with less than 100 permitted track vehicles roaming the Glades, the hunts still provoke controversy. Critics say deer don't stand a fair chance against motorized monsters that can run them down to the point of exhaustion. And each season, some track hunters are cited for flattening tree islands -- high, dry spots in the spongy marsh that deer and other wildlife use for refuge.

TOUGH TO CONCEAL

On opening weekend, Bingham and his officers were intent on enforcing environmental and safety laws, in particular protecting tree islands and the one-buck-per-track bag limit.

Unfortunately for Bingham, his airboat didn't remain concealed for long. About an hour after sunrise, three men in a bright-orange track named ``Too Much Fun'' rumbled past his hiding place and stopped to chat.

Pete Hora of Fort Lauderdale, his son-in-law Bobby Green and friend Jeff Smith were still looking for a big buck.

``They're all over. They hide very well. Basically, if they stand still, you won't see them,'' Hora said. ``Sometimes we don't even get one. Some of it is luck; some of it is skill. You have to be in the right place at the right time.''

After the trio left, Bingham radioed Colon in the airplane, telling the pilot, ``I just got burned.''

Colon radioed back with the location of a track in the Rotenberger area that he had seen run over a tree island. Bingham cranked up the airboat and found the alleged offender talking with FWC officer David Weis. Bingham photographed the track's wide, muddy footprints crisscrossing an area posted with signs where native vegetation recently had been replanted. The new plants were covered with protective wire cages. None had been trampled. Weis wrote the track hunter, Carl Glisson of Hollywood, a $62 ticket.

``I was lookin'. I didn't see it. I tried to stay on the outside of it,'' Glisson explained. ``I screwed up. Nothing intentional.''

Bingham and his officers continued patrolling the hunting grounds around the clock through Sunday afternoon. They wrote a total of seven citations and inspected nearly 50 tracks. A total of 15 deer were reported killed at the regional check station. Bingham said more citations might be issued pending verification of reports that some deer were not checked in as required.

Said Bingham: ``For the most part, everybody complied with the rules and regulations. Overall, we were happy with how the first weekend turned out. We'll see what the picture is later on down the road.''