Sandhill Crane

[grayghost]

Shot this bird in Texas. What an outstanding gamebird SH Cranes are! Work just like geese into the grain fields and respond well to calling and decoys. They don't call them "flying ribeye's" for nothing as they are great on the table. Some folks confuse them with Heron's but they are not. They eat mostly grain and young, tender grasses; rye, wheat, barley etc. Just got him back from my birdman in Alabama: Blake Wilson. I'll touch up the base once I get him home.

[toxic111]

& Up here no one hunts them.. they all say they taste awful... I never have treid one myself, but I never get the chance on waterfowl, as I am usually hunting deer the same time.

BTW Cool looking mount

[grayghost]

As with any wild game, it's knowing how to prepare and cook. When I started hunting waterfowl, no recipe I tried tasted good. I turned to my Grandmother who grew up in AR with a duck hunting Father. She taught me how to cook duck. Now I find it delicious without a gamey taste. Crane is excellent. Most that say it stinks either think it's a Heron or have never tried it. The rest, well, try telling them they can't boil water...lol

[Mr. 16 gauge]

Interesting that you should post this today; as I was driving home from duck hunting, I saw three in a dried up section of marsh that I used to hunt several years ago......at first I thought they were blue herons (had two come in in the A.M. while duck hunting), but a closer look verified that they were sandhills. Unfortunately, we don't have a season on them.......

[grayghost]

Neither do we as hunters didn't show up last year at the G&F meeting that could have given us a season. We winter around 75,000 each year on one southeastern refuge alone. Hopefully next meeting there will be enough interest to demand it. Not many are seen in middle TN but they do show up at times like the snow geese. Great gamebird and if people knew enough about them they'd demand a season. No shortage of the lesser SH cranes.