Of Wild Flushes and Wild Meals

Woodcocks on the way...

Yesterday Del and I went out bird hunting again. It was a fresh and moist morning and the fall colors were glowing in a particularly beautiful way. I love the burnt reds and coppers.

In the early part of the hunt we had a lot of walking, which should please Dr. March as he insists that I exercise daily, some false points and many wild flushes, mostly woodcock, but also one young and illegal whitetail buck with short spikes over its head. The buck was illegal because we had shotguns for the birds we were after and it is now bow season for deer, and because of the new antler restriction regulations based on Quality Deer Management principles that protect bucks until they have at least three points in one side.

After coming back to the car we drove around to another area and let out both Gina and Zap, and we went out in another long walk. Finally when we were no more than one hundred yards from the car the dogs started pointing woodcock one after another. We would have had a limit between the two of us if Del's auto-loading shotgun had not misfired twice and if we had found one of the birds I shot.

I think that Del knew all along where the birds were, but he is under orders of Dr. March to make me exercise and walk every inch of the Michigan north woods, or at least every inch of Grand Traverse, Benzie and Leelanau counties, before we can collect a couple three birds for dinner.

For a change we did not go out for lunch in respect of our respective diets.

For dinner I prepared the woodcock (beccaccine) skinned (poultry skin is bad for triglycerides) and cut in half, lightly browned over just a bid of lard, and then cooked with shallots and cipollini on a white wine and rosemary sauce. As contorni I had grilled eggplants (melanzana) white beans (fagionlini) salad. The wonderful dinner was washed down by a glass of I Tre Vescovi, and excellent Barbera d'Asti.

There may be more pleasurable things in life, but few can surpass good friends, hunting and a wild game dinner.

to become a meal!

Kevin's Amusement Park

View from one of the many tree stands

Last weekend I met my friend and business associate Kevin McKervey who had invited me for a weekend of bow hunting for whitetail deer in his "up north" property just south of Cadillac, Michigan.

I arrived at his "cabin" around 3:00 PM on Friday and Kevin introduced me to his lovely wife Patty and friend Mark (the second Mark would only arrive on Saturday), and after a great venison roast he took me on an ATV ride to reconnoiter the 37 acres and eight food plots, and multiple ground blinds and tree stands.

It is amazing how much can be learned by a simple ride, a bit of observation and a lot of conversation. I had never attentively hunted before a property intensively managed for deer, and i can only say that it requires a labor of love for the whitetail and the sport from Kevin and Patty.

After a three hour drive (each way), they spend almost every single weekend of summer and early fall spraying weeds, tilling, disking, planting and fertilizing food plots, cutting down trees and trimming branches to open shooting lanes, and they share the potential fruits of their labor, money and time with good friends.

We hunted Friday afternoon and while seating on my stand I observed squirrels, rabbits, blue jays, robins and chickadees galore. Just before dusk the distant honking of Canada geese provided the music to put the sun to sleep. With darkness came a beautiful half moon and Kevin calling me to help to track a doe he shot about an hour ago.

Arriving at his stand I met Brenda, a neighbor and friend that was also helping tracking the doe and who first spotted the blood trail. After half an hour or so we (or Brenda) located the doe, and Patty came with the tractor to haul the animal back to Kevin's barn where he has a fantastic butchering set-up. Dinner was pizza and libations.

Next morning we were back at the same stands, I heard the flight of Canadas going the opposite way from last night, but none of us saw any deer. Kevin cooked breakfast with eggs, potatoes and absolutely great venison brats. During afternoon we watched another Spartan's victory at the Big 10 college football and the weather starting to change with a constant wind from southwest.

By 4:30 PM we were out to our respective stands or blinds, and due to the wind everything was very, very quiet. Towards dusk the wind die out a bit and squirrels moved to their nests, rabbits came to graze at the food plot, birds flew around, but the geese did not bring their music to welcome the gathering storm.

The coming rain synchronized our return to the "cabin" (really, not a cabin at all, but a very comfortable home), and very soon I had hot cools in the grill and where fresh deer liver and venison back straps were grilled and enjoyed with healthy salads and good almost fresh french bread.

At the end of a typical hunting season Kevin, Patty and friends may on average harvest four to six deers, but their hard work creates not only a fantastic amusement park, but health habitat that is a piece of paradise for multiple species of the great northern woods of Michigan.

A Nice Fall Morning

Zap & Gina with woodcock

It is no secret to anyone that knows me that I endure most of the year to really live and enjoy fall, as fall means hunting season is open, and that translates into spending time outdoors with friends.

I was able to take sometime out this morning to go bird hunting with friends Del and Dan. We met at Del's around 9:00 AM, which is one of the beautiful things about "upland bird hunting" as we don't need to wake up well before the stars dim out as we need to do when deer and duck hunting.

We enjoyed some small talk while getting ready and loading Del's German short-hair pointers, Zap and Gina, in his Honda Element, which is really a nice little hunting car, and then drove in a generally Southwest direction to get to the same plot of state land where Del and I hunted almost a year ago.

When we got there we parked where we intended to end the hunt and walked the dogs on leash to the covert a half a mile or so to the beginning of the covert where we released the eager Zap and Gina, loaded our guns and started walking through the ferns, already burned, but bravely resisting the passing of the season.

The first part of our walk was quiet, for the lack of a more sedated word, but just so suddenly Zap and Gina started to go on point, sometimes at the same time but a hundred yards apart. Over the next two hours or so we may have had twenty or twenty five woodcock flushes, and maybe we got legitimate shots at half of them.

Dal was shooting  a very nice Benelli Ultralight 28 gauge semi-automatic shotgun that he own at the Ruffed Grouse Society banquet last month, while Dan was using a side-by-side 20 gauge SKB and I had my Browning BSS, also a twenty. Del had one misfire and another time he forgot to chamber a shell, and even if I say so, I enjoyed an inspired day, and got my share of the action and of woodcock.

By the end of our morning stroll when it was already quite warm, if not hot, we had bagged six birds, while we could not find two other. We also had a single wild flush from a grouse, but neither Del, Dan or I could even had a good look at it.

We finished our morning with excellent burgers at Jodi's Tangled Antler, a great hunter friendly and antler decorated northern Michigan bar. After that, back to work...