Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Best way to pluck a duck
We have a lot of mallard on one of the shoots I pick-up on and I often take a brace home at the end of the day. I have a lot of trouble plucking them — it is not getting the feather off that is the issue, it is the residual down and quills. I have spent hours attempting to remove them by rubbing and pulling at them but to little avail. Any tips?
There are ways to solve this problem. The first is to not pluck them at all, but to simply skin the breast and leg meat. This is harder to do with duck than pheasant, but not impossible. The down side is that your meat will lack the tasty skin and fat that remains when you pluck your duck.
There are a couple of good tricks for removing the down and quills. You could employ the dry plucking technique used by many, which simply involves dipping the ducks in a specially prepared wax that you heat up. Once the wax sets, you can break or tear it off and the remaining plumage will come away with it.
The second way — and my preferred method — is to play the flame of a blowtorch over the skin of the birds, burning off the quills and down from those hard-to-reach places. The smell of the burning feathers is unpleasant but it is not a patch on the faffing about involved with waxing. TM During our summer holidays to the Hebrides, my children and I were amazed at the number of stags that came into the garden of our cottage every day. They seemed to be confident in the presence of humans and had to be chased away. How normal is this and are the animals dangerous if approached?
It is never a good idea to treat any animal you come across in the wild as tame. This is especially true of large animals, which can hurt you, The stone curlew is a migratory member of the thick-knee family that is found in the south and east of England during the summer and through the autumn. more often than not because you block their escape and in effect corner them.
Generally, animals that don’t react to the presence of humans will either have something wrong with them or may have taken to living close to and benefiting from humans, thereby losing their fear.
On some Hebridean islands there is an issue around red deer raiding crofts and, in some cases, people’s gardens. The main concern in the southern isles is Lyme disease and the chances of catching this through the presence of stags close to houses. Those stalking in the north this coming season should check for ticks at the end of each day. IW
Conservationists are trying to maintain a breeding population of 400 pairs, numbers having recovered to this level thanks to efforts by the RSPB, Natural England, Wildlife Trusts, farmers, keepers and birdwatchers. At this time of year flocks can be found on East Anglian pig fields close to heath and farmland.
Stone curlews are hard to spot by day, as they spend most of the time roosting and are well camouflaged. In the evening they hunt for worms, making full use of their large light-gathering eyes.
Currently, birds are fattening up for migratory journeys that will take them to Iberia or North Africa for the winter.