"You Can't Eat Those Birds"


Hunters from around the country will say that a mallard duck is among the best table fair mother nature has to offer!  An equal amount of hunters will argue that a wood duck eats better and some people think that any species of teal are even better yet!  Having hunted more than 20 states and Canada, I would contend that everyone is right! Waterfowl are a staple around my house in the winter and spring and while I prefer a cast iron dutch oven packed with teal, I don't ever turn my nose up at the opportunity to eat a few snow geese.  Most weekend warriors will swear that the taste of a snow goose isn't tolerable, even by the neighborhood dog.  When I hear that kind of sheepish nonsense come out of someone's mouth, I always ask the same question......"Have you ever even eaten one?"  More often then not, people studder and say, "Well....no.  But, I've got a buddy that tried to cook them one time and he said that they were terrible!"  Truth be told, I would bet my meager paycheck that most hunters wouldn't even be able to taste the difference between a snow goose and any puddle duck.

Wanting a clear conscience, I can't personally take credit for the following recipe.  The recipe below disrupts the contemporary notion that the Lessor Snow Goose isn't fit for a table of kings.
 

Pluck-A-Duck Lodge Snow Goose Rumaki

Ingredients

1.  Snow goose breasts
2.  Soy Sauce
3.  Cooking Sherry
4.  Orange Blossom Honey
5.  Fresh Garlic Cloves


Preperation

Cut the breasts into small chunks.  In a bowl, combine soy sauce and cooking sherry at a ratio of 2/3 soy to 1/3 sherry.  Dissolve 4 to 8 tbs. of honey into soy/sherry mixture.  Crush and add 3 cloves of garlic to the mixture.
 
To marinate, place your snow geese and marinade in a gallon zip lock bag.  Force all of the air out of the bag and press down with weight (we use a plate) to ensure all of the goose meat is covered.  Marinate approx. 4 hours.

 Cooking

After your snow geese have finished marinating, place a slice of water chestnut on each chunk and wrap with a thin slice of bacon.  Skewer each chunk on a wooden skewer and grill to medium rare. (over cooking will result in dry tough meat)

To finish, sprinkle with brown sugar immediately after removing from the grill.

Most people will say, "You Can't Eat Those Birds," but I say you can!

 

"Lone Oak's Ebony Ace"

When I volunteered to author an article spotlighting a single retriever in Arkansas, my mind was flooded with a thousand questions on what would make one retriever worthy of such recognition. Do I write about one of the more famous retrievers like Chris Akin’s dog Boomer? Maybe I should write about the “common mans” dog who faithfully works day in and day out for his owner. What about a dog that retrieves 500 birds in a single season? How about a Hunting Retriever Champion or National Field Champion? The questions were endless! After thumbing through a list of contacts that I have made in 14 years of water fowling, I realized that I knew a dog that was worthy of such a spotlight.

Lone Oak’s Ebony Ace or “Ace” is owned by Pat Pitt, a lifelong Arkansas hunter, former guide and founder of the L’Anguille Lounge Duck Club. Born in July of 2000, Ace is the son of a HRC/MH female and Abe’s Ebony and Ivory, a National Champion male. Ace spent the first two years of his life in training with Chris Akin of Web Footed Kennels, located in Bono, Arkansas. When asked about Ace, Chris Akin said he could remember exactly what Pitt said when he called about a dog, “I want a dog that likes to retrieve birds as much as I like to kill them.” Ace retrieved his first bird for Pitt in 2002 and since, the team has been relentlessly pursuing every species of North American waterfowl. Ace hunts every day Pitt does excluding Pitt’s occasional trips to Iceland, Mexico and New Zealand. Hunting with Pitt translates to between 90 and 100 days on the road each season ranging from Canada to Arkansas. With 6,066 lifetime waterfowl retrieves, Ace is a hunting dog. “I never cared anything about running retriever tests and trials with him” Pitt said. Pitt was also quick to note that all of Ace’s retrieves were on waterfowl, as he does not use Ace to retrieve doves. While most hunters hope their retriever has the opportunity to retrieve 500 ducks or geese in a lifetime, Ace regularly exceeds that mark and has had more than one season retrieving over 1000 birds including a single season high of 1176 retrieves. Although 6,066 retrieves is certainly amazing, what is more astonishing is the amount of banded birds the team has harvested over the last 7 years. After a quick look in Pitt’s detailed log book, he noted that since 2002 he has been with 131 harvested birds that were banded including 5 neck collared geese. Over half of those banded birds were harvested by Pitt himself and three quarters were retrieved by Ace.

If the sheer number of days hunted each season and total retrieves were not enough to qualify him for time in the spotlight, his retrieving work for well known waterfowl artists, authors and conservationists certainly make him the clear winner!  Since 2002, Ace has hunted with more than his fair share of water fowling celebrities. When asked about Ace, author Doug Larson said, “It is almost as if Ace is of a different species, a stronger, more determined, brand of dog with a singular drive to bring ducks back in a way that will get him to his next duck as quickly as possible.” If being glorified by a well known author was not enough, consider the fact that Ace has hunted under photographers like Delta Waterfowl’s Fred Greenslade, wildlife photographer Gary Zahm and most recently, Ace made an appearance in the October 2009 issue of Field and Stream. Just in case the previously mentioned were not enough, Ace has also retrieved harvested birds for Federal Duck Stamp winning artists Dave Maass and Scott Storm and waterfowl conservationist Rob Olson and John Deveny, both of Delta Waterfowl. The reality is that we have all knowingly or unknowingly hunted over Ace. In 2007, Ace was immortalized by Cynthie Fisher in her painting “Cache River Mallards.” Both Fisher and Ace received one of the highest awards that can be bestowed upon any artist or retriever when “Cache River Mallards” was chosen for 2008 Arkansas State duck stamp. There is no doubt that a retriever of Ace’s caliber is deserving of a spotlight in this publication!

At the end of day, Ace is more than just a retriever to those of us who have had the pleasure of spending time at the L’Anguille Lounge Duck Club. Ace is the dirty, tired dog that stays in the corner of an old block camp house, he's the dog that doesn’t want his owner to have a mid-day nap in his old blue chair and Ace is the dog that wants nothing to do with anything other than retrieving waterfowl. More than anything, Ace is the beginning of a smile from a demanding owner, the source of pride for a hunting family and the subject of quiet jealousy for those who witness his ability.

 (Written By Stephen Shepherd and Featured In the 2009 Arkansas Life Hunting Resource Guide)

"Words Say It All"

How many things can one person excel at in a single lifetime?  While I don't know if any answer is truly correct, I do know that the simultaneous pursuit of perfection across multiple subjects at one time can drive a person absolutely mad!  As someone who is a little OCD, a lot ADHD and who's brain probably looks similar to a fall carnival, complete with loud music, horses bobbing up and down and colorful fireworks, I feel completely qualified to make such a statement.  Having confessed to how "jacked up" I really am, I do believe that we all wish that we were better at many things in life.  While the business owner probably wishes he was as good at hunting as he is at accounting or the professional baseball player wishes he was as successful at catching fish as hitting the clutch single, I secretly wish I was as good at writing, as I am at selling stuff.  As I type this blog, I can't help to think that what I am typing is complete garbage and doesn't do justice to the 10,000 thoughts that are going through my head.  Anyway, I digress.  Below, I have listed some of my favorite quotes and hope that one day I can be as eloquent with the written word as the men that penned them.

"Thus we see that the lot of the duck hunter is not a happy one. He is the child of frustration, the collector of mishap, the victim of misfortune. He suffers from cold and wet and lack of sleep. He is punished more often than rewarded. Yet he continues. Why? Because one great day-- and great days do come, days when the ducks are willing and the gun swings true-- repays him many fold for all the others." -Ted Trueblood

"I pity the duck hunter who goes for ducks alone. I pity the duck hunter who has not filled his being the dawn magic. I pity the one who cares not, or knows not, what he has killed...There is a great deceit in duck hunting by which men count their sport in terms of 'limit bags' and 'good shooting.' Be not fooled. These same men would great the rising sun in season though they knew their chances of killing even a single duck were very, very poor indeed." -Field & Stream, December 1937

"I have always had a soft spot in my heart for marshes. They challenge me to come and look. Their capacity for mothering wild life is far greater than the drier uplands, no matter how beautiful they may be. It seems to me that no man is closer to the beginning of things and the eternal motherhood of the outdoors than when he is familiar with a marsh." -Field & Stream, December 1936

"When you have shot one bird flying, you have shot all birds flying. They are all different and they fly in different ways, but the sensation is the same and last one is as good as the first."-Ernest Hemingway

“There is a solitude, or perhaps a solemnity, in the few hours that precede the dawn of day which is unlike that of any others in the twenty-four, and which I cannot explain or account for. Thoughts come to me at this time that I never have at any other.” –George Bird Grinnell

“All the sounds of this valley run together into one great echo, a song that is sung by all the spirits of this valley. Only a hunter hears it.” –Chaim Potok

“In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen.” –Theodore Roosevelt

"We keep our memories in the same place we bury dogs and pals who are no longer with us. We keep these treasures in the vaults that hold the sights of geese pitching into a set of field decoys and quail buzzing out of a brushy corner by a split-rail fence. And when the time comes, when it’s easier to remember old times than to gather up new ones, it is to this place that we go, you and I, to watch for the flight at sunset." – Steve Smith

"A goose represents the rebel in all of us and because they’re wild and free, they have a certain quality that shines out and makes us wish that we were not bound to labor in life, but rather that we could drift as they do with the seasons." – Paul Bernsen 

"There is much to be said in behalf of the solitary way of fishing and hunting. It lets people get acquainted with themselves. Do not feel sorry for the man on his own. If he is one who plunges into all sorts of work, if he does not dawdle, if he does not dwell upon his aloneness, he will get many things done and have a fine time doing them."

"Time is probably more generous and healing to an angler than to any other individual. The wind, the sun, the open, the colors and smells, the loneliness of the sea or the solitude of the stream work some kind of magic." – Zane Grey 

"Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in." -Mark Twain

“We cannot but pity the boy who has never fired a gun; he is no more humane, while his education has been sadly neglected.” –Henry David Thoreau