Since last we met...

Thousands of cranes, waterfowl, marsh birds, and raptors counted.

Great Horned Owlet looks like a fluffy cat on the limb.

Hundreds of ducks banded. Ducks hunted, with a few in the gumbo pot to share with friends.

B'Dawg fetches a male Northern Pintail.

Dove hunted...

 then prepped as appetizers for future visitors.

Dove breasts stuffed with cheese and jalapenos, wrapped in bacon

 

Packed for the freezer.

 Deer and turkey scouted and hunted. Alas, no tidy vacuum-sealed packages for the freezer.

 On private land; how did they know the season started?

Traveled to Seattle, WA and Washington, DC for work; to NorCal wine country to celebrate birthdays... 

A cure for palate fatigue: fresh oysters, cold beer, Goat Rock Beach.

and to southwestern Florida for fun while MDMNM was in class all day.*

These birds were regulars on the beach outside our hotel. We see the Snowy Egrets at our refuge fairly often; 
in a rare sighting a few weeks ago we saw a lone Little Blue Heron there, too.

Good friends were hosted. Spring sprung.

And we lost the eldest in our clowder...

You might remember him from this post.

so here we are. Next time we're together, let's go for a walk in the garden.

*Yes, Intrepid Reader, we did manage to get in a half-day of fishing without missing a single CLE credit.

Just ducky, thank you!

'Tis the season...
We had a good snow a few days ago that put us up to nearly a third of our average yearly precipitation, yay!! However, the relentless cold that accompanied the front has most of the waterways on the refuge frozen, severely reducing our A+ rating among migrating waterfowl. Already our duck count is down, waaaaay down.

M, B-Dawg and I haven't had the time to duck hunt this season so the prospect of no duck gumbo this winter darkened my thoughts as I drove home from the bi-weekly waterfowl count. I was watching the still-icy road rather carefully when something in my peripheral vision caught my attention... that stubble field was not a pristine white landscape, there were odd brown bumps all over it! I slowed down, grabbed the camera and did a u-turn as soon as it was safe, knowing -- Oh Joy!-- what I would find...

wigeon with pintails slumming off-refuge

Although I haven't been hunting yet, I've had more than few ducks in hand over the last few weeks. My local refuge's biologist (BioJefe) participates in the North American Bird Banding project and this time of year it's all about the ducks. You know that highly prized 'jewelry' waterfowlers everywhere add to their lanyards? This is how it gets there...

BioJefe & BioJ  remove duck from trap

talk sweetly to the mallard hen

'with this ring, I thee... tag in the name of science!'

While we have the ducks in hand, a few non-invasive* measurements are taken...

weighing a female bufflehead

measuring a mallard hen's culmen**

We also take wing, tarsus, and head measurements, and determine whether the bird is an adult or juvenile. All data are reported to the Bird Banding Laboratory.


Occasionally we trap a duck that has been banded before -- a most spectacular drake Mallard banded at the same refuge in 2007 is the oldest one I've seen thus far -- and sometimes we get other waterfowl that are not subject to banding.

not a duck (BioB holds a pied-billed grebe)

What an education this has been, and continues to be! Some have asked, but I have no problem participating in this conservation and species management program and then eating a wonderful bowl of duck gumbo made with birds we harvested ourselves. Hunters and anglers support conservation in myriad ways: through the sale of licenses, tags, stamps, and equipment; donations; political action; countless hours in in the field, stream and ocean; and through groups like Duck Unlimited, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and the Coastal Conservation Association, just to name a few. Volunteering to help collect the scientific data that forms the basis for waterfowl management is just another way to help ensure their future. My reasons for hunting? Well, that's another post... although I'm pretty sure it's a form of AOH.

If you're lucky enough to bag a tagged duck or goose, or come across any bird with a band, don't forget to report it to www.reportband.gov. You'll get an email or letter telling you what's known about your bird (here are some stories you might be able to top) and the data you submit makes you part of the citizen scientists that make this program a success. If you want to see the stats for banding efforts and recovery by species -- along with some fun trivia -- start here.

*That's right, Intrepid Reader, no ducks are harmed in the collection of this scientific data... although the drake Mallards might disagree based on the criteria for determining whether they are adults or juveniles. Sigh... you can't just take their word for it. 

** that's the top of her bill

Today's Mail

It's really raining here -- finally! After no measurable precipitation since September, it's really coming down. Rah! Considering the 100+ degree days of late and how hot our west-facing kitchen is, this cool, overcast afternoon means one thing: it's time to bake. I was just getting ready to clear the kitchen table when this mess caught my eye; I had to laugh.

If only Martha hunted...

After my beginner's luck of drawing a once-in-a-lifetime oryx hunt two years ago, we've had scare opportunities for big game. This year we drew deer (yay!) but no elk or antelope. Since we're down to the last few butcher paper-wrapped packages in the freezer we're talking about heading to a northern state for elk this fall. As a result, at the end of the month I'll be sitting for 16 hours with 15 young men (and hopefully a few young women) to meet the hunter education requirements for our neighboring state. I'm actually excited and looking forward to the class... I just hope I don't start getting those forgot-I-had-a-test or why-am-I-naked-in-gym-class anxiety dreams.

Lucky me. I'm going to go dance in the rain, then do my homework at the kitchen table while the cookies bake. Wish you were here, too.

Mushroom Monday

"Green-winged teal, 3; 1 cinnamon teal, another green wing, 5 gadwall; mallard hen with brood of 5; 6 blue-winged teal ..."

It's 100 degrees in the truck, I'm frantically trying to write down this rapid-fire list for my first-ever bird count and my mind keeps wandering... 'ummmm, ducks...we need some for gumbo next year... check your waders for leaks... you really need to shoot; join the local skeet or trap club and get out there... where are my calls and that CD?... yes, yes, I really will practice before this season... swing, swing, swing..."  Yes, it's mid-summer and -- naturally -- a girl's thoughts turn to duck hunting.

Oh, wait... it's Mushroom Monday, isn't this a little off track? Nope.

Dinner last night.

That's marinated & grilled duck, last year's (??) mushroom, duck stock with an Asian flair, and fresh noodles from the big city: Duck and Mushroom Faux-Pho. (Living here we make do with what we have so we're missing a few key ingredients for a real Vietnamese taste, but it's close.)  Lots of mushrooms could go into pho and you can't tell anything by the picture so what might this be?

This week's mushrooms grow at the base of conifers (especially pines) in the Western U.S. (another variety grows in the Eastern U.S.). They can be large (up to 24") and range in color from whitish-beige to a light-ish orange/brown.

100# Chesapeake Bay Retriever for a perspective on size

Described as looking like and Elizabethan ruff, a bouquet of egg noodles or a certain Brassiciaceae family member, they are quite distinctive on the forest floor and have no poisonous lookalikes. The fruiting bodies have stalks that reach down to the dead or dying tree roots so when you harvest these mushrooms, cut them even with the ground and make sure to leave some for posterity's sake and for the other critters who eat them. You will be rewarded: these delectable mushrooms tend to grow in the same spot year after year. Yeah, that was easy...

Cauliflower Mushroom (Sparassis radicata)

Their slightly spicy taste and ability to keep their texture (like a perfectly al dente noodle) for hours in braises and stews are a few of the reasons these are considered by Arora and so many others to be "edible and exceptional." I concur! They have a slightly bright citrus note when fresh and a lovely, deep earthiness after they've been frozen. They can be difficult to clean but they are well worth it. 

For our first taste of cauliflower mushrooms we tried a salad from Fischer and Bessette's Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America: A Field-to-Kitchen Guide.  The lemon enhanced the brightness of the mushroom and the slightly bitter toasted walnuts added balance and texture to the dish. Delish! What we couldn't eat immediately we vacuum sealed and froze. They turned out beautifully, as we thought they might based on the ground work done by foodie/forager blogger Langdon at Fat of the Land. 

Faux-pho with grilled duck and cauliflower mushrooms is something to add to our recipe files. Now the trick is to stock up on both those ingredients; our duck hunting and mushroom foraging have moved southward from our familiar haunts, presenting some fun challenges. Finding cauliflower mushrooms in the local mountains might be the hardest task because I think I know where we can find some ducks*...shhhhhh.

*It's okay -- I'm no scofflaw -- one can hunt legally in designated areas of the refuge. However, locals say the ducks know that better than anyone: they relocate to the protected ponds from daylight to 1pm, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays during the season. Smart ducks, we'll have to look elsewhere.

Pheasant Confit on Wild Mushroom Risotto

We had a bountiful pheasant hunt in 2009 (you can read about it here*) but didn’t manage to get through all of the little white packages in the freezer before we went again in 2010.

These frozen treasures made the trip to Smallish Small City with us and we vowed anew to make sure we made a dent in the freezer baskets of pheasant before the 2011 season. Unfortunately – for this task anyway – our favorite preparation for pheasant turns out to be a great way to stretch an ingredient. Inspired by a dish we had at a local wild game & wine dinner, we braise and shred the pheasant, mix it with corn and roasted poblano chiles, add a little cream, wine and stock, and serve it on pasta.

Well, it tastes fine...

We used up a few more birds in an experimental canning of the pasta sauce, thinking it would be an easy-to-fix meal after a cold day of duck hunting (it turned out tasty, but not pretty in the jar). If you’ve checked out the 2010 link (above) you know the buttermilk fried pheasant turned out well, too.

A few days ago I was searching for something slightly different to go on the grill with our newly harvested eggplant and thought perhaps that buttermilk soak might work again for pheasant on the grill. So the freezer pheasant count dropped by three; they were cleaned & breasted, the bones and scraps went into the stock pot, and the legs… hum… what does one do with perfectly lovely game bird legs that are too nice for the stock pot? That’s right… confit them!

Confit is a technique for preserving meat (usually goose or duck legs): the meat is salted (with spices) for 24-48 hours in the refrigerator;

then rinsed and gently cooked in fat. The cooked meat is stored in its fat in the refrigerator until needed;

That's actually confited quail , but you get the idea.

then reheated (often until crispy) and served on salads, in cassoulet, etc. In our case, we served the pheasant confit on a wild mushroom risotto made last year's boletus barrowsii and fresh sage. We were quite pleased with the pheasant, the slightly gamey taste was nicely balanced with the herbs and the texture was firm, not dry or stringy.

Yum!

Risotto in the pot.

Okay, maybe it was a bit of an overkill. Even using the pheasant stock in the risotto, it took a lot of pheasant to stand up to the mushrooms in any given bite. It was all delicious but the combination didn't do justice to the pheasant. Well... there are five more confited legs in the 'fridge so the experiments will continue.

* and Disclaimer: That's the blog of the erudite and dashing MDMNM, husband, missed in the blogosphere (and in the kitchen) as work devours his life for a while.

Ouch!

After about an hour of quail hunting the dog vanished. BDog had been staying in range(mostly) and then he wasn't. No tell-tale rustling of mesquite or other sound to indicate where he was and no response to calls from either of us. As we headed in the direction we had last seen him, we began to worry...rattlesnake? No, still too cold at night but you never know... a big cat? There had been no yelps, no barks...nothing. "BDaaawg, come!" M found him standing a respectful distance from this:

On closer inspection, it turns out the porcupine had tagged BDog on the chest and chin, probably with one swipe of its tail. You'll have to look closely to see the extra chin whiskers. It's not a great photo; I only had one chance before we headed to the nearby truck for a little doggy 1st aid.

After a thorough plucking, a drink and some rest while we drove to the next swath of grassland, BDog was cleared to go back into the field. Good thing, 'cause there were scalies to be retrieved. Ah... no, no lizard, dragon or snake people were harmed but a few Callipepla squamata will wind up as confit for a lovely dinner salad some night this week.