And, speaking of Buffleheads

Jon Yenulonis

Jon Yenulonis

Well-known member
For me, they usually get a free pass. I don't have anything against anyone else shooting them, I just don't care to. The problem with this whole subject, is I'm not really sure why. Could it be because of their size? I really doubt it. I love to shoot doves, eat little shrimp, oysters, clams and other former living beings who are even smaller. Because of their flavor, once again I doubt it. My wife has a way of preparing them in a Gumbo that would make any Cajun Chef lick his lips. Is it because they are not the smartest bird to decoy? Probably not. I do think they are one of the prettiest little birds to come into the spread.

It must be something else. I sent a text to my buddy Kevin Puls tonight that kinda summed it up. (And I'm not usually good at putting my feelings into writings).

I wrote- "I guess I find quite a pleasure out of being able to say- no, I just don't want to kill that beautiful little creature, knowing I am certainly capable. I have, and I will do so occasionally, just when I WANT to, not because I have to, or just because I'm out there."

There is just something special about these beautiful little flyers.

Anyone else give a certain Duck a free pass? Or am I the only one out there, as Kevin jokes- "too good to shoot Buffleheads"?

Jon
 
I usually like to let them pass unless there's kids on board. Then it's game on. The kids have a blast. I try to enforce a drakes only policy.
 
Jon,

In the waters that I hunt, the only divers that I take are Canvasback, Ringneck, and Redhead. All the rest just don't taste very good. I used to take everything. I just got tired of trying to make the birds taste good. I mainly hunt out of a scull boat, so I can pick the birds that I want to try for. Also, I find the older that I get, I don't feel the need to fill my limit when I go out. If I a few good eating birds, that's good enough. I will scull on divers to see how close I can get sometimes, then take a few pictures. It's to bad they don't taste good around here, because the divers are really cool looking birds. I love the black and white birds.

Dale




 
When sculling I have bumped ruddies off my bow. There really isnt skill in sculling them so they get a pass. It's pretty cool sitting in the raft of birds.

But on a point I hunt, every now and then they actually fly by. Then they are fair game.
 
Chris, I take the same approach, I normally only shoot the flying ruddies.
But 9 times out of 10, when I see ruddies, its singles & pairs, or sometimes even whole flocks, swimming into decoys.
One day about 5 years back I had a flock of 8 swimming & feeding in the decoys, they were fun to watch.
 
Dale, how about the greater scaup y'all have? Still very strong tasting? I cant really tell the difference between them & the redheads here. But then they are feeding in the same grassbeds with the redheads, eating almost the same stuff.
 
I'm not sure what book I may have read or what old hunter may have said this to me but I believe in a hunter's stages of progression. I think once the glory of limiting often wears off you reach a stage where you derive enjoyment from many other aspects of the hunt. I have reached that point where I no longer hunt for puddle ducks with plastic decoys and my main gun is a 32" barreled side by side. I think however I have not reached a point yet that I will let a bird go based on specie. I suppose there will come a day that hens will get a pass and then maybe a particular specie. I do like to eat and have figured out a way to eat even the lowly merganser so for now if it decoys and gives me a chance I'll try it.


Eddie
 
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Jon your not alone I usually pass on buffs and rudy's. Having said that I have to confess this year I shot one buff ; simply because it was such a rotten year for decoying birds. When you sit there for five hours and haven't seen anything you shoot the first thing that comes in.
 
I think ruddy ducks are the best tasting of all the divers. The problem is as you guys have said getting then to fly. We don't see them very often in jersey (except on a select few lakes) and it's even more rare to see them off the water. When they do get up and fly though I really enjoy putting a few down. They taste so sweet, maybe that's just something that they eat here din jersey? Ive heard of guys saying broadbill (scaup or bluebills) don't taste good and I think they are delicious. I assume that's just the difference in what they are eating in other parts of the country. Don't get me wrong nothing beats the taste of a wood duck or teal but just about anything besides mergansers and brant are edible to me including divers.

Side note though on the brant. I've been lucky enough to share a blind with some old timers, one that has 70 years of experience hunting the jersey coast, and he says brant used to taste great. He said something about the food source has changed to make their once delicious appeal turn to something terrible. He says that that used to eat "grass" but all those grass beds have turned to "bay cabbage" I'm not sure the exact variety of plant life he speaks of as I'm sure those are local jargon for the two types aquatic vegetation but (if it's true, and I have no reason to believe it isnt) it proves that ducks can taste different just based on where in the country you are. Kind of like back in the market gunning days how a canvasback killed in the Chesapeake Bay was worth more than a can killed anywhere else because they were eating celery.
 
The old-timer is correct.
Brant prefer to eat eel grass (either Zostera sp. or Vallisneria sp.)
When a disease & poor water quality killed off large swaths of the Zostera beds in the northeast years ago, brant switched to eating "bay cabbage" or "sea lettuce", which is a type of algae:

http://www.chesapeakebay.net/fieldguide/critter/sea_lettuce


My understanding is that ones that eat eel grass are tasty, but ones eating the algae are not.
Eel grass is recovering in just about all the Northeast estuaries as water quality has improved and restoration efforts have taken hold. Maybe the taste of brant will improve as well!
 
When brant are eating eel grass they are (apparently) palatable, it's when they get into the sea cabbage that they go downhill quickly. Unfortunately there's not a lot of eel grass beds left in many areas of NJ.

^^^ Carl beat me to it!
 
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Craig and Carl thanks for the info. Although I guess none of that will matter unless the brant population bounces back.
 
I enjoy gunning them from a challenge perspective. Being a new hunter, they're the only birds I've been effectively able to decoy in. Shooting them? That's another story. Those things pitch in like dragonflies in summer. I do eat them but they're not my favorite. I actually made some BBQ in the slow cooker last time I shot them. Came out great. Put it on toasted buns with fresh cole slaw.

Next season I'd really like to shift my focus to puddle ducks. Divers saved me this year though. With the weather we had it was the only bird I could find.
 
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Carl,

I have hunted California's northern inland lakes, and there, all the divers taste good. Down in the bay/delta area, the greaters must eat something pretty strong. I used to hunt them a lot, just don’t like fooling with them any more. For what ever reason, the redheads taste good. I have hunted divers in our salt water bays. That’s where they are really strong tasting. The brant on the other hand, are by far in my opinion, the best eating birds around these parts. Maybe, I’m just getting to picky................

Chris,

It’s so cool, getting up close to the birds, and just watching them interact with each other. You an I, see things with scull boats, that others can’t. A few weeks ago, I had a family of river otters 5’ away. Pretty cool.

Dale
 
Dale,

Are pacific brant generally considered good eating? I know on the east coast they are widely considered to be terrible table fare. I used to eat them but have since stopped killing them because there are so few and taste so terrible. Not to mention they are just so easy to kill, not exactly the smartest birds in the world
 
Dale,

Are pacific brant generally considered good eating? I know on the east coast they are widely considered to be terrible table fare. I used to eat them but have since stopped killing them because there are so few and taste so terrible. Not to mention they are just so easy to kill, not exactly the smartest birds in the world
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Will,

They are. On the west coast they eat eel grass. I'm pretty sure they eat sea cabbage on the east coast. I have been told that makes them taste bad.

Dale
 
I guess that really is the difference then. One of these days I'll make my way out there to the west coast to do some hunting. Would love to put up a nice "black brant" on the wall as well as taste what a properly fed brant tastes like
 
I feel the same way about woodcock. I just can't shoot them. Not that I am a bird hunter, but I used to do some grouse and woodcock, the latter of which there are usually good numbers of in Jersey in certain areas. And woodcock taste good. I guess I just developed a soft spot for them-the long bill, the goofy flying, the twittering sound they make when they get up. And they kind of look and act like they know what they are doing, but in your heart you know that they really don't have a clue. So I leave them alone.
 
I love watching the kids put a smack down on the buffies and its easy to pick the drakes out. Generally I also give them a pass now I never gave much thought to why. If I come up with a good reason Ill post it. With that said, give me a hard crossing drake that is really screaming across the end of the long lines and my finger gets itchy. If anything will get me to pull the trigger on one that's it. I just cant resist!
 
I sometimes give a single bird (any species) a pass and just watch it interact with my decoys.

Usually though, taste or species out the window, I pull the trigger. If it's a canvasback it gets cooked for dinner within 2-3 days.

Any other duck/goose/snipe/dove/rail goes in the freezer. End of season take it all to a deer processor, they put in 50% pork and charge me $3 a finished pound and you can put the nastiest salty diver or snow goose in there and it tastes delicious, and I'm not really a duck eater.
 
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