Best Eating Waterfowl - Pacific Black Brant

Somewhere between second and third helpings of dinner last week, the Swamp Warlock, aka Jim Crews, and I intently deliberated whether Pacific Black Brant is possibly superior to South America's rosy-billed pochard as tablefare, which we'd long-since agreed was the best we'd ever had.  It was hard to take each other too seriously as we talked with our mouths full.

I've previously hunted Atlantic Brant in Rhode Island.  And because they seem to be widely regarded by many northastern seaboard waterfowlers as very poorly tasting (though formerly prized by market gunners), I've had no serious inclinations to shoot them at all after adding a beautiful pair to the game room.  I have no aversion to eating ducks and geese; we eat lots of them at camp and home.  Pot-roasted green-wings, smoked white-fronts, grilled poppers, blue-wing chicken fried tenders, and orange-maple mallards are favorites.  But when I learned that we'd be eating plenty while Hunting Pacific Brant in Cold Bay Alaska, I chalked it up to the roughing it part of the Alaskan bush experience.  I could not possibly have been more pleasantly surprised; Pacific Brant are absolutely delicious.  Likely the best-eating waterfowl in the world.

Pacific Brant feed almost exclusively on marine eelgrass, a perennial seagrass with long, beautiful, bright green, ribbon-like leaves, that flourishes in shallow estuaries.  Izembek Lagoon, which is part of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, has one of the largest remaining eelgrass beds in the world.  Many square miles of eelgrass lay bare at low tide, and it's relished by voracious flocks of migrating Pacific Black Brant, as well as the Eurasian and American Wigeons that are proliferate to the area.  Once abundant in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, and other northeastern US estuaries, an estimated 90% of the Atlantic coastline's eelgrass beds are gone, and this surely correlates to the poor palatability of Atlantic Brant.

Grilled Pacific Black Brant

Our Cold Bay, Alaska Pacific Brant hunting guides demonstrate that simple is surely best.  Allowing two brant's worth per hungry adult hunter, place in ziplock bag and marinade Pacific Brant breasts overnight in a solution of olive oil (or vegetable oil), garlic powder, and your favorite seasoning (we used cajun seasoning, but anything agreeable to your palate will work perfectly).  Place the breasts on the grill over high heat, cooking for a couple of minutes each side.  The meat is best cooked rare, no more than medium rare.  Remove from heat and serve immediately.

Tammy's Disappearing Jalapeño Poppers Recipe

Beyond the duck blinds, some of the best times to be had at duck camp are around the dinner table, or anywhere like-minded hunters gather to eat, drink and socialize.  Where shooting warms the gun barrels, good food and fellowship warms the spirit, regardless of whether the ducks cooperated!

The following recipe was given to me by Tammy W. F.  Among the oldest of friends, I've know Tammy since middle school and she's one of the best natural-born cooks you'll ever meet.  She came by it naturally, too: 30-something years ago, the best collection of hunting trophies within walking distance of my house hung on the stone fireplace in her family's home.  I've taken the small liberty of adding marinaded teal or dove to her recipe, but it's not necessary.  They'll dissappear just as quickly without.  Tammy's Jalapeno Poppers became instantly popular at our home, and among local duck hunting circles, most recently at the 8th Annual DuckSouth.com Teal Hunt.

Donia's Boudin Stuffed Mushrooms Recipe

The term boudin in this part of the world commonly implies boudin blanc (rice and pork), but may also mean boudin with crawfish, crab, shrimp, and rice. Most of Louisiana's cajun's do not consider boudin a sausage, but it is cased like sausage. White pepper, green onions and cayenne seem to be prevalent ingredients. Boudin is readily available most readily in southern Louisiana, particularly in the Lafayette and Lake Charles area, though it may be found nearly anywhere in Cajun Country, including eastern Texas.  Boudin is sold from convenience stores along Interstate 10 to restaurants dedicated to it, and recipes vary.  Boudin, jambalaya, gumbo, étouffée, and dirty rice are among the greatest culinary masterpieces from which southern humanity has benefitted thanks to Louisana.

The Annual Ducksouth.com Teal Hunt has evolved through time into an invite-only, potluck dinner and social the night before.  Friends from as many as 5 states convene at Willow Break lodge in Mississippi's South Delta to share their favorite hunting camp recipes, drink and swap stories early into the morning.  A few actually get up to hunt teal, but the event is not about actual hunting; it's about everything else that makes hunting camp, times with hunting friends, the absolute best of times.

Rick Daughtry, President of the West Mississippi Hunting Retriever Club in Vicksburg, Mississippi, has attended most of the annual teal socials.  He gets together a few times a year with close hunting buddies for beer drinking and boudin making, and his private-reserve boudin is an event staple.  Like Bibles in church. Like black dogs in duck blinds.  The amount of cayenne in Rick's boudin, we think, is directly proportional to

Ducks Unlimited Life Sponsor

In July 2011, Ramsey Russell GetDucks.com proudly became Life Sponsor with Ducks Unlimited.  Ducks Unlimited Life Sponsorship requires a minimum $10,000 commitment to wetland habitat and waterfowl conservation.  Says Russell, "It's a way of giving back to a tradition that has given to me since I was 12 years old; a way for me to personally ensure that my children and theirs can continue to enjoy waterfowl hunting as have I."  Learn more about becoming a Ducks Unlimited Life Sponsor.  Ducks Unlimited is the world leader in wetlands & waterfowl conservation - filling the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow and forever. Join Ducks Unlimited today.



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The Lifeblood of Tradition

Like most of life's best moments, my youngest son, the middle child, posed a big question out of the blue: is there anywhere in the world left to discover, places that no one has ever been?  If so, it was plainly evident by his earnest demeanor, he intended soon to explore and to discover them, barefoot of course, with nothing but his trusty, iron-sighted air rifle slung over his shoulders and a pocket full of loose pellets so that they didn't noisily rattle in the canister like they would, later and inevitably upon his much celebrated return, clatter in his Mother's ill-fated dryer.

A thousand images of a young adventurous boy probing the wildest and most impenetrable corners of the world overwhelmed me.  Before I could speak he continued with the fascinating depiction of discovery and fame that only a young boy with a trusty pellet rifle can conjure.  Good stuff.  I smiled and soaked it in. As it grew quiet except for the hum of all-terrain tires over asphalt, I sensed he awaited an answer. It's a big world full of dark woods and long rivers, I told him, but whether someone's been there before, or even if it's smack in the middle of the world's third-largest city, I shared, it's our true selves that is the most enduring discovery.  Unimpressed, the conversation abruptly turned to the downrange trajectory of flat versus conical pellet types.

Ursa Major

Bear hunting. I like it. I think I would especially liked it in Mississippi nearly 150 years ago before the railroad companies penetrated the virgin deciduous hardwood forests, as described by Faulkner, that rivaled the Amazonian rain forest. Early Delta settler, Bobo, reputedly shot more than 300 bears during a single season back in those days, and his dogs went on to become the most legendary lion dogs in Africa. I've got the manuscript about a gentleman, as written by his grand nieces, whose father never kept count of the deer and bears killed near Tutwiler, but knew for fact he'd killed 19 panthers over the years. Holt Collier, of Teddy Roosevelt bear-guide fame, was an expert bear hunter that ironically made an above-average living selling bear meat to the rail road to feed their labor. Bear was more profitable than venison because bears weigh more than deer.

I'll tell you a bear story many haven't heard. My dad, who never really had much, called me as I was nearing college graduation, and offered to throw in on a hunt if there was one to be had. I booked a Saskatchewan bear hunt. Had always wanted to hunt one and it's a comparably cheap big game hunt.

I traveled way, way up into northwestern Saskatchewan, deep into the boreal forest.

5,000

New Year's Day seems fitting for milestones and renewed beginnings . The sun rose slowly and remained obscurely in gloom.  An flock of green-wings flying low to the water skirted the decoys, never checking up.  For about an hour, several thousand snow geese paraded overhead and well out of shotgun range, and as their ululating cries faded we were left with only the deafening silence of wind sweeping across the bleak Grand Prairie. The hunt was perfectly slow paced for gathering thoughts between whispered visits with son Duncan, who just the day before had garnered his first double with a pair of green-wings.