Duck, Duck, Goose

  Jason really got into waterfowl hunting this past winter, both with a shotgun and with a bow.  He did bring home quite a few birds, and we ate every one of them.  I am by no means an expert when it comes to cooking up waterfowl, but I did learn a few tricks and turned out some tasty meals.  For instance, did you know that waterfowl meat is more like beef than poultry?  There's a fact to tuck away in your brain for some future conversation, or if you happen to come by a duck or goose that needs cooking.

The best part of his temporary hobby (the season ended at the beginning of February) wasn't the additional meat, but that Jason had such a great time doing it.  I'm telling you people, you have never seen a man so excited to see a flock of geese as this man was.  He would even get giddy spotting a few geese in a parking lot. He had the entire family scouting for birds whenever we were driving in the car, and usually had a pair of binoculars on hand for closer examinations.  He spent so much time looking for them that it got to the point where he started recognizing individual geese.  That's pretty serious.  Good thing there's an end to the hunting season or Jason might have joined a flock and began living life as a crazy Goose Man.

Anyway, now that you have some background on his passion for hunting, you'll be able to better enjoy/appreciate his successes documented in the following photos:  

 

 This was one of the first birds of the season, a mallard duck. 

After many weeks of effort and many YouTube hunting videos, he finally got his first geese.  I thought perhaps it would satisfy his desire to hunt them, but I was dead wrong (no insensitive pun intended).

 
I think this was his first goose taken with a bow.

 Here's a view of the duck hunter's dream.... too bad they're all decoys!

This was the prettiest duck he brought home: the Golden Eye duck.

Aptly named, as you can see.  We kept his beautiful black and white feathers, but I have yet to figure out what to do with them.  Supposedly this type of duck does not make for good eating, but we thought it was pretty good.

So, I guess I shelve my cookbook until next season.  I wonder what's next on the menu?  With Jason, you never can tell.