Welcome to Outdoor Savages! We are a small group of friends that enjoys nothing more than to spend our free time in the outdoors. Here are the first hand accounts of our adventures. Enjoy!

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Opening Day Ducks

Today was opening day of duck season. Not a great hunt but a great day on the water. I shot a buffle head right away and my friend shot a merganser. We did have several brant land in our decoys but they don't open till next week. I did see a few flocks of sea ducks zipping around out there but none came in. I was just happy to get out there.

6 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your first duck of the year.

    I have seen these on a pond I fish but never knew their name.

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    1. Yup Buffle Heads, they are one of the most common ducks in Long Island sound during the winter. They start to show up in late October. They are a small duck with thick plumage, which allows them to be very hardy in cold weather. Buffle Heads also come to decoys well. probably the easiest decoying duck out there. They fly 1 foot off the water and Mach 3 speed. Table fare is not great but not that bad either.

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  2. I got a Bufflehead too this year, a hen, it’s in our freezer.

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    1. I soak them in milk over night then cook them. It comes out just fine

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    2. I started to pluck our Bufflehead, but then decided that the skin/fat may be to strongly flavored, so I boned and skinned it. I suppose milk is a good liquid for treating game because of its unique properties of milk/butter fat, acids, ect. Someone else wrote that watery preparations potentiate the gaminess and oily or fatty preparations lessen the gaminess.

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    3. I treat my old squaw and scoters the same way and it comes out great. I find the golden eyes and scaup don't need it. And there is no hope for the merganser

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