The Rain Didn't Quite Bring In The Birds As We Hoped

At around 9:30 this morning Jeff called me to ask if I wanted to meet him at the club to hunt in the afternoon.  Without  hesitation I agreed so I hastily got my stuff and packed the truck.  Having shot as much as we did the last outing, I chose to bring my Winchester Model 12 so I could save money by shooting steel.  Jeff hunted yesterday and he said it was rather poor.  He and his regular hunting buddy managed 7 birds of wigeons, scaups, ringneck, gadwall and spoonies.  He said it was tough getting those birds.  The rain came and with it our hopes for a great hunt.  When I arrived just before noon, birds were working all around. 

The entire club was empty and we had it all to ourselves.  So Jeff could work the birds and we could hunt them properly without someone skybusting them.  Early we had a lot of promise as flocks and flocks of spoonies came in.  Despite having them within range we passed on shooting them waiting in favor for the good ducks to show.  The occasional mallard, wigeon came into our pond but not within shooting range.  The weather began to improve and was not as foul as we hoped and the flocks of birds slowed. 

We waited for hours and with the club all to ourselves, Jeff suggested we moved to a nearby tule island.  I walked over there to recon it to make sure we could stand on dry land.  When I was making my way over I flushed a pair of mallards behind me. Jeff expertly took both of them with two shots.  I walked back with Kaiser to get the retrieve.  These mallards were big, Jeff estimated them 3 or 4 years old.  The chest of the drake was grey suggesting an mature bird.  After we made our way to the island we had a few flights fly over.  I couldn't hit jack with the pump.   After shooting empty on a spoonie Jeff dispatched it after seeing I was dry.  After that it was pretty much over and we called it quits saving enough legal shooting time to see if we could jump a duck or two on the way back to the trucks.

Goose Rillette

Greenwing Teal Sushi!?!

Ingredients
Duck Breast
Grated Ginger
Momiji-oroshi
Chives
Sushi Rice
Rice Vinegar
Mirin
Salt

After rice is finished cooking.  Mix vinegar, mirin and salt and set aside to cool.  Heat skillet in medium low heat and add oil.  Season the duck breast and cook skin side down until golden and flip to cook the other side.  Cook to medium rare and set aside to cool.  Once cool slice the breast on a bias.  Wet hands and form the sushi rice.  Top with duck, momiji-oroshi, grated ginger and chives.

Last Hunt Video Day 2.

Peking Inspired Duck Green Onion Pancake and Chinese Picked Cucumbers

This dish is obviously not Peking duck.  Peking duck's focus is on the crisp skin.  The meat is secondary.  This is just an inspired version of it that is a lot easier to make.  I cooked the breast a in a skillet to medium rare.  Original Peking uses a steamed bun or thin pancake.  I store bought the pancake and used a thick green onion pancake.  You can make them easily by hand.  There are several recipes online if you are so inclined.  I used Hoisin and Sriracha  sauces to finish.

Spicy Pickled Cucumbers
Cucumbers
Red Peppers
Ginger
Garlic
Rice Wine Vinegar
Soy Sauce
Sugar
Sesame Oil

Cut cucumbers lengthwise in half.  Spoon out the seeds.  Cut into strips.  Place in a colander.  Sprinkle with a liberal amount of salt.  Don't worry about using too much you will rinse it off later.  The purpose is to exact as much water so the more salt the better.  In a container place slice one clove of garlic and let it sit in the rice wine vinegar.  Then slice ginger and red peppers and place in the container with sugar.

After about 20 minutes rinse cucumbers with water.  Then grab a handful of cucumbers and squeeze with your hands removing as much a water as possible, continue until the batch is finished.  Place cucmbers in the vinegar mixture.  Add soy sauce and sesame oil.  Place in the fridge and let sit for at least half a day.  The longer the better.

Video From The Last Hunt

I finally downloaded, edited (poorly), then uploaded the video from our last hunt.

Dove And Pickled Beets Salad

Ingredients:
Dove
Beets
Mirin
Soy Sauce
Rice Vinegar
Shallots
Mixed Greens

Pickled Beets:
Wrap beets in foil and drizzle with oil.  Roast Beets in 400 degree oven until al dente (usually anywhere from 30-45 minutes).  Careful not to overcook and keep the beets somewhat firm.  Once cooked remove form oven and let cool.  Once cooled, with a spoon scrape the skin off.  Slice the beets.  Chop the shallots and mix with all the liquids in a tuperware with beets.  Taste for desired level of acidity season with salt and whit pepper.  Cool the pickles in fridge until ready to use.  Ideally this should be done a day or more ahead so the flavors meld.

Dove:
Spatchcock (butterfly) the doves. Generously season with salt and pepper.  Heat a cast iron skillet.  Once hot add oil and cook the dove skin side down.  Once golden flip the other side.  Cook to a medium.

Serve with mixed greens and any other vegetables of your liking.   Use beet juice mixed with olive oil to use as salad dressing.  Place doves on top.

Booty Fabbed Aging Rack

Prior to the season, Lou and I had the intention of making a very nice aging rack for our birds.  We picked up the material, cut it to shape for the most part but due to life in general we ran out of time to build it.  All the pieces are lying in a corner in Lou's shop. The rough cuts are made but the assembly and finishing work still needs to be done.  Since I had limited out on ducks last weekend I needed something to hang my birds, so I grabbed a bunch of left over wood and crudely made an aging rack for this year until I could finish our "presentation" piece.  It's ugly and an embarrassment to any proper woodworker but it works for now.

Not Like The Day Before

After staying a night in the biggest shithole motel I've ever slept in, it was time for another day afield.  Sunday's hunt was much different than the previous day's epic duck hunt.  I knew the hunt would be difficult without a group of hunters or dogs to pressure the birds. Despite that I choose to give it a try in the hopes of getting a rooster to rise.  Early in the hunt we managed to flush up two hen pheasants but to have them only fly into a posted field.

One or the first things I noticed this year was a lot more fields were posted this year.  Some of my favorites were now off limits.  Also several fields were barren and were now dirt pits not sure if that is the result of our drought or the farmer's economic conditions nevertheless it was disheartening. But with the Santa Ana winds picking up I was caught up in some massive dust storms for a while so I drove out of those areas.

I drove around looking for new fields.  Kaiser managed to scent a bird in a large alfalfa field that ran on him.  I saw the track it left and we worked the field as thoroughly as possible but the wily bird out ran us.  I'm confident that had we had a number of hunters with us, we could have flushed the little bastard.  While driving around I found a duck club loaded with quality ducks.  Of course it was off limits to me but it was impressive to see the number of mallards, pintails,  among other waterfowl.

Hunting, as I predicted, was tough.  I only managed to flush two hen pheasants that flew into a posted field.  While I saw a number of doves while driving, I only had a minimal number of shots at them.  I did take two for the day. So at least I wasn't skunked on this trip.

Double Limits Menagerie

Day One.  It seems that any plan I make, it only ends up being altered.  I had planned on hitting the Sierra earlier in the week only to have that canceled.  So rather then head north I decided to head south for the weekend and chase pheasants.  On Thursday Jeff called and let me know his regular hunting partner cancelled on him and asked if I wanted to sub for him.  In a heartbeat I answered in the affirmative.  Jeff had ran his dogs on Tuesday at the club and saw an abundance of big ducks.  The northern arctic freeze had pushed the birds down and Jeff predicted a good day.

Not an uncommon sight for the spectacular day

At 3am my alarm went off and I packed up the shotguns and headed to the duck club to meet Jeff.  Unlike our last outing Jeff would have to draw a new blind for this time around since he didn't like the blind he was assigned to for this round.  Luckily he drew number one and chose blind 15, one of the best of day's vacant blinds available.

In the darkness of night while heading to the blind, we could hear the variety of ducks teasing us within the various ponds, pintails, wigeons and mallards before legal shoot time.  We sat patiently as quality ducks flew overhead teasing us as we waited for the buzzard to inform that we could begin hunting.  By 5:56 am Jeff began skillfully calling them in. The first birds to fly by were shovelers and we let them pass, waiting for the quality birds that Jeff was so confident would eventually pass.

Our first pintail

It wasn't long before we had birds falling from the sky.  Jeff was dead on with his Beretta auto taking the first bird, a greenwing teal.  Jeff had several before down before I finally connected with my first bird, a hen spoonie.  My first several misses were caused by my over thinking each shot; I was trying to calculate the lead rather than letting it come naturally.  Once I finally shut the brain off I was connecting with some regularity including my first pintail, a drake in eclipse plumage

Jeff readying himself for a shot

Time in a blind is often spent waiting staring at the sky with a brief moments of action which was the case the last time Jeff invited me to his club.  Usually the only thing to pass the time is excellent conversation but on this day it was not the case.  In fact most of our conversations were abruptly cut off with someone interrupting to point out birds flying by.  For the first several hours it seemed nonstop.  Jeff hooked many and got them to commit to landing in the spread but was ultimately foiled by our neighboring blinds that foolishly skybusted birds.  I thought duck clubs had a better class of hunters than refuge hunters but I guess this is not the case.  Naturally this type of nonsense inflames Jeff and rightfully so, most of the birds the neighboring blinds had taken were because Jeff managed to get he birds to commit and work the area.

I expelled more shot than I care to admit.  Shooting Bismuth, Hevi Shot Classic Double, and Tungsten Matrix, at an average of $3.00 let's just say it was an expensive day.  I actually feared I might run out before we reached our limits.  That would not be the case though thanks mostly due to Jeff's dead aim.  On the advice of Jeff he suggested I ditch the side by side in favor of a gun that can shoot steel.  I agree and if he invites me again, I'll take my Model 12. Financially speaking I think this is prudent especially if we have another day like this one.  I'll keep the Merkel Model 8 for jumpshooting.

We managed our limits and had a just about ever species in our bag.  Three mallards (two of which were drakes), one drake pintail, three greenwings (two drakes), one drake cinnamon teal, one hen bufflehead, one hen spoonie, one hen ringneck, one hen gadwall and two hen wigeon.  It was quite a day and I am truly appreciative of Jeff's generosity and not to mention his patience with Kaiser.   while my drahthaar is an outstanding upland dog, a decent jump shooting dog, he is unfortunately an annoying blind dog.  He simpy wants to run.  Sitting and patience are not his forte at least when it comes to hearing gunfire or birds in the air.

We limited out at around noon.  Since I was already packed for pheasants and my drive already cut in half I decided to continue the day looking for roosters.  I drove down and had about 2 hours of light to work with.  I tried a few new fields but had no luck in finding any.  I headed toward town for some burgers at In-N-Out before looking for a motel to rest up for the next day.

Specklebelly Au Poivre

Ingredients

• Goose breasts
• Heavy cream
• Vermouth
• Demi glace (or powdered chicken stock)
• Green peppercorn

Preparation

Put breast in a pan, skin side down, and cook on low heat.
Discard the fat and turn them and brown for a few minutes.
Put the duck warm plate and cover with tinfoil. Deglaze the pan with the vermouth and add the green peppercorn, cream and chicken stock.
Salt and pepper lightly.
Simmer 2 minutes over low heat until the sauce thickens.
Remove the duck breasts on hot plates, surround them with sauce.

Specklebelly Breast With a Soy Glaze and Onigiri

After about a week of aging, I finally prepped the speck from last week's hunt.  Jeff warned me that cleaning these specks are going to be a pain.  He was not kidding.  It at least an hour to clean the bird and even then it wasn't fully plucked.  There still were down and pin feathers that needed to be removed.  It took forever and ended up butchering the bird and then take a butane torch to the remaining feathers.

Ingredients:
Goose breast
Chives
Short grain rice

Marinade:
Shio Koji
Mirin
Sake
Dashi powder

Sauce:
Soy Sauce
Sake
Mirin

Place the breast and marinade ingredients in a ziplock bag and leave for several hours.   Start with the sauce by placing all the ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Once bubbles occur lower the heat and simmer until it thickens to s syrup like consistency.  Using cooled cooked rice place rice in an onigiri mold.  Place duck fat in heated pan and place the rice frying until golden on each side. With duck fat, pan fry the breast to rare or medium.   Once acheived place on a plate and top with thickened sauce.  Not there is no need to season the meat, the shio koji will salt the meat.