RIP to at good buddy
 

I went out the basement door a bit ago, with my trusty Savage in hand, to 'educate' a marauding red squirrel, and found, much to my dismay, that a grouse had committed "suicide by picture window" and was on his back in a pile of seeds. Not just any grouse, this is the big mature male that has been coming to my feeder for two years and had attained a well-earned position of "king of the roost" in my little preserve. What a shame. He was destined for such greatness in the grouse world this summer. Big and strong and very well fed, he was, I'm sure ready for action. The rest of the bunch seem to have gone on their spring walkabout looking for a summer area, but this guy seems to have chosen to remain here. I have been hoping to hear him drumming in my woodlot, despite all the good drumming logs still being covered in deep snow. It must have happened but a few hours ago. as he's barely cooled down. If I were into mounting birds, this would be stunning specimen. What a shame, a "lower the flag to half mast" event.

Hand Salute to the old warrior.

He should be tasty but a bit salty seasoned with your tears.

A sad day.





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Well you don't have to worry about picking shoot out of him. How will you be cooking him?

You might consider making an exception and mount the old gentleman. A lasting tribute to a great bird.

Anyone who has tasted grouse would know what to do. Make sure to open a decent bottle of wine for the occasion.

I have a very special bird recipe that has them sauteed in lots of butter and cream, crimini mushrooms and good sherry. He will get the royal treatment, this one. I was so looking forward to having he and his girlfriend strut back into the yard later on with a line of chicks behind them so they could feed on the clover I've planted for them in advance, and to show them off to me.

That sounds like the perfect meal to be accompanied by some spring fiddleheads! Bon appetit!

We are now seeing the bottom of our sixth 50lb bag of sunflower seeds, and it's a dead heat which will end first; winter or the bird food.
We have always enjoyed the huge numbers of Cardinals that come daily, but one pair, in particular, always fed on the terrace, right outside the family room window.
Saturday, which may prove to have been our very short summer, had me out raking dead leaves from the pachysandra beds, and I found Mrs. Cardinal laying in the leaves, still warm. I knew who she was immediately, and made the mistake of passing the sad news on to my wife. It didn't help matters that I told her I was sure Cardinals mate for life.
I do not believe in coincidence, so I'm sure there is another reason she wore all black to work yesterday.

Sad news. We love our cardinals!

I'd imagine a non-hunter would have a difficult time understanding how those of us who hunt can love and admire animals so much, and mourn a loss like this one. But WE understand, even if we can't quite explain it.

You are a great gentleman and a keeper of the flame for all who love the outdoors. We salute you but I would imagine your grouse left some offspring that may step up to keep you company, I hope so. Thanks for keeping us in the south in touch with the real world out your back door!

Nature abhors a vacuum. Another feathered masterpiece will take his place.

We have reverence for game animals we hunt on many levels...

Very sorry to hear your news Edgar. I will leave my flag at half staff for a few extra days in honor of your loss.

Shame he’s gone. Probably to old for Pete’s popper recipe.

I just finished filleting him out. Lordy! That boy was rolling in fat. I have never seen so much fat on a grouse. Good on him for continuing to take advantage of my exclusive Pahtridge Deli. He had a load on too, as he had just packed his crop with yummy sunflower seeds, and I mean packed; it felt like there was a hard ball in there. This bad boy was clearly headed for the drumming olympics. Damn. A shame he didn't fly away from the house instead of the opposite. I guess a sign is in order.... "PLEASE DEPART TO THE SOUTH"..... That oughta do it.

I think you fed him too well. With an altered CG he entered a stall/spin and encountered the window before he could recover.

Sometimes living the good life has its perils!

When I lived in a wooded area we put sun catchers in the windows to keep the birds from flying into them.
My wife painted a dogs paw on the basement slider after Ilsa ran into the closed glass door. It's a wonder she didn't break it:eek: No dog has had a run in with it since.:)

After a true Viking warriors sendoff that included sacrificing his carcass to a raven and two foxes I finally made a meal of my grouse buddy for my birthday dinner today. This is my favorite bird recipe. It's basically gently poached in butter, sherry and heavy cream along with spices, mushrooms and chopped leeks and served of course on my finest Russian china that is hand-painted with 22ct gold. The pattern was invented for Catherine the Great in 1785. Fitting, I think. Everything that looks like butter and cream here is... well, butter and cream. It was all very tasty, of course. Lacking white wine I had to make do with some Fosters lager. There are still three grouse coming into the feeder so perhaps the next king is in the group.

That looks delicious! Care to share the recipe specifics?

I think I have posted it on the forum at some point in the past. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the recipe today, but I know I have it in my computer somewhere. Basically you just melt a lot of butter, sherry and spices in a pan then sautee at a med heat the sliced Crimini mushrooms and chopped leeks a bit, add the sliced grouse and cook it about 3/4 of the way, lower the heat to pretty low and pour in some hvy cream and cover it and heat it up slowly so you don't burn the cream and serve. Serve Lipitor for dessert. It would also make a wonderful pasta topping, which I've not tried yet. The original recipe calls for shaggy mane shrooms but it's a tad early here for that. Shiitakes would certainly suffice. It's the best bird recipe I know.

Looks great Richard!!

Were you able to taste the delicate nutty flavor of the grouse?





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Ooh that does sound good. The only thing missing is all that should be served on top of a bed of grits or course ground polenta. Laissez les bons temps rouler.

I hope you had a nice big piece of crusty 'artisan' bread, to get every drop of that wonderful sauce.

Well I guess the Mourning is over. I though surely he would bury him or at least cremate and scatter his ashes in the forest. With friends like Richard who knows. HE HE HE!!!

Thats what the grits are for.:rotf:

The sauce is indeed wonderful Edgar. It was a little heavy on butter and light on heavy cream in this attempt. It's supposed to be a white cream sauce, but I never seem to get it quite right. I did indeed use some of it on some buttery potatoes as a side dish, licked the plate clean and cleaned the sauce from the pan with a rubber spatula and put it into a container to be reused, likely on some pasta. Not a drop of that goes to waste for sure. I do like your bread idea; just didn't have any bread here.

Gerald: the viking sendoff I gave him was actually most interesting. I save all my bird carcasses and put them out for the ravens and such, but I very rarely see whatever comes and gets them. Generally a raven just comes in, grabs it and flies off. For the first time ever I watched the raven take this one apart in the yard for a while, which is a first. After he flew off with the scraps a huge cross fox came in and did cleanup on the sight; I watched that for a while. A hour later a huge red fox came in looking for scraps. Never before have I observed all that and I somehow just can't accept it as coincidence. I think my bird buddy possessed big Juju. At least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Seriously? I keep some in my car. Lighter than sand and gives me traction on icy roads.

Circle of life. Obviously your grouse was treasured by many but probably only you will have a fond remembrance. Growing up on a gentleman's farm every year we would take a steer or two we raised to put meat in the freezer. I guess we were ahead of our time because all our beef was non hormone pasture grass feed critters.

Unfortunately we also named all our animals and put their names on freezer wrapped packages. They were plain animals so we gave them plain names. Remember when my parents had an old friend that came and visited a few days with us and she went into the freezer and saw the packages named Hank's Rump Roast, Darryl's tenderloin, Eunice's ground round. That was an interesting conversation.

Oh the horror:eek:, your definitely employing them wrong.:cuss::nono:

I understand you live above the Grit Belt, and you would probably never enjoy grits on their own, but taken in context of a supporting role with a savory sauce with meal described would probably change your mind.

Of course I'm also taking into account that you might have a grit prejudice so I won't waste my time or yours describing what your missing out on:banghead:. But, if you have never had fried crappie served with grits that have mozzarella cheese and mixed in with some red pepper flakes for kick, then its possible you just haven't lived a full life yet. Btw you have to have cole slaw added in as well, its important.

I understand completely Todd. My sister raises all her own beef, pork and chickens-for eggs and roasters. Some of them get names, especially the laying hens and roosters. I've toyed with names on my prominent grouse visitors but they never seem to stick for some reason.

Or the next birthday dinner!

Nice recipe and a fitting tribute to an old friend. Well done!

Richard, your recipe reminds me of one of my favorites, Trout Avery Island. Typically employed for Speckled Sea Trout or even bass. Btw the Cajuns called bass, Green Trout since meat has same texture, taste and qualities as speckled trout. I'll bet if half the bass fisherman used this recipe they would never put em back. Recipe has a ton of butter and white sherry and its baked in the oven. I like to cheat it and pan fry the fish with a light corn meal and flour coating before putting in oven with the butter and all the fixings. But hey I am from the South and like everything fried. Grits are always optional but we put a bed of grits down on a plate then the fish with all that sauce over top. The grits take all the sauce in and guaranteed you won't be able to eat without tapping your toes.

I think Edgar has the right idea on the usage of grits. Birds eat grit I'll eat the birds and thats as close to eating grits as I care to get.

Ha. I don't think you fellas are truly embracing all things southern with the big event coming up this week. That's okay though.

I prefer my speckled trout (salvelinus fontinalis) with blueberry pancakes, both pan fried in bacon fat. And a good hearty mug of coffee.





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You may be a Yankee by birth but you definitely have some Southerner at heart!

Happy Birthday Richard!

I'm surprised that the bird committed suicide in the spring. I have had a grouse fly through my windows twice in my life. Both times were in the early fall.

Some say it was due to the grouse eating fermented fox grapes. But I don't think so. I think it has more to do with the young scattering and flying crazy. Young grouse will scatter somewhat which is natures way of managing the gene pool. I don't know for sure but that sounds pretty good to me.

Your bird was obviously trying to get into the house to get more seed. Did you forget to feed him? What a shame. His death should be on your conscience.