Waterfowl Identification; The LeMaster Method by waterfowler, master decoy carver, and artist, Richard LeMaster can help. This guide enables the hunter to make an identification of a bird in hand - or in flight. An easy way to identify the duck in hand is by it’s bill. This spiral-bound, pocket-sized guide has detailed, life-sized color drawings of dozens of duck bills. Each variety of duck has it’s own page providing information on their flight style, male vs. female, and adult vs. juvenile identification characteristics. Detailed drawings of wing markings, head profiles, and in-flight side views are presented. LeMaster has even included a section devoted to aiding in identification by their typical "comfort zone" flight level over water - with side by side comparisons of various species often mistaken for each other. Another page illustrates the feet of various duck species. In addition to ducks, LeMaster has included: geese, swans, cormorants, loons and grebes. Although I’d really like to see this with plastic coated pages for better durability in the marsh, this is definitely a guide book that every waterfowl hunter can appreciate and make use of - novice and veteran, alike. Have you ever ate crow? How about rabbit, squirrel… or pigeons? Blackbird pie, anyone? Complete Fish and Game Cookbook by A.D. Livingston is the definitive cookbook for everything from waterfowl and traditional upland to small game, fish and big game. The common to the exotic. It’s in here. Offerings include: roast pheasant, mesquite quail, duck soup and goose jerky. Sounds good. Feeling adventuresome? Try crow hash, blackbird pie, sand hill stir-fry… muskrat stew, gator ribs, grilled armadillo or perhaps fried rattlesnake! Actually, this is a practical, home-cooking type of cookbook. The ingredients called for are, for the most part, items you may already keep in your pantry - or can find at the local grocery store. Most recipes are easy to prepare. Interspersed with tips and tidbits, it makes for interesting reading: "Young or Old? - A yearling pheasant can be distinguished from an old bird by the first wing-tip feather, which is pointed in a young bird and rounded in an old one. When the upper part of the pheasant’s beak is pliable to the touch, then one can be certain it is a yearling bird. - Larousse Gastronomique" Page 2 | Spaniel Journal | Next Page | Previous Page |