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Waterfowl
Why Do You See So Many Ducks After the Season?
At the close of every duck season, it doesn’t take long for mallards and other puddle ducks to fill the skies and start landing in front of vacant hunting blinds. Greenheads, pintails, and other waterfowl dabble and preen in waters they would not have prior to the close of the season because hunters...
Joe Genzel
Feb 17, 2023
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Duck Lore
Our Waterfowl Crew
Ryan Callaghan
Ryan "Cal" Callaghan is MeatEater's Director of Conservation and a national board member of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. Cal has been a passionate member of the outdoor community, having grown up hunting and fishing, guiding, and playing in the West.
Check out some of Cal's favorite gear.
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Steven Rinella
Steven Rinella is the host of the long-running television show MeatEater and top-ranked MeatEater podcast. He is the New York Times bestselling author of ten books dealing with wildlife, hunting, fishing, and wild game cooking, most recently Outdoor Kids in an Inside World: Getting Your Family Out...
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Janis Putelis
Janis Putelis is the Director and Executive Producer of the Netflix Original series MeatEater and co-host of The MeatEater Podcast. Before joining MeatEater in 2012, Putelis spent over a decade guiding hunting and fishing trips in Colorado, Arizona, and Mexico and three years in a professional...
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Duck Dogs
Waterfowl
3 Drills Every Duck Dog Should Master
For waterfowl hunters it almost never fails: Your high hopes are dashed on the first hunt of the year when your retriever shows you his or her actual skillset. A seemingly rock-solid backyard gun dog can let you down as soon as the first woodies circle and the shotguns come up. This can be partly...
Tony J. Peterson
Jul 24, 2020
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Waterfowl
Underrated Bird Dog Breeds You Should Consider
Check out the American Kennel Club’s rankings for the most popular dog breeds from year to year and you’ll see what you probably already knew: Labrador retrievers dominate. Going on nearly three decades now, the Lab has proven to be the most registered AKC breed out there.
Golden retrievers and...
Tony J. Peterson
May 15, 2020
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Waterfowl
How to Introduce Your Puppy to Gunfire
The good thing about gun dogs is that they will forgive you for most of your training mistakes. You can flub your way through handling duties and eventually use a few mulligans to do things the right way—except when it comes to gunfire introduction. If you screw up this step, the odds are not in...
Tony J. Peterson
Jul 20, 2019
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Ducks
The Real Difference Between American and British Labs
The hunting dog world is full of stereotypes and generalizations—none more entrenched in the bird hunters’ zeitgeist than the perceived differences between British and American Labrador retrievers. It’s commonly believed that British (or English) Labs are smaller, stockier, quieter, more easily...
Tony J. Peterson
Oct 18, 2019
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Waterfowl
Should I Adopt My Next Hunting Dog?
For all the promise and anticipation wrapped up in a new puppy, there exists a certain charm in restoring the shine on a second-hand bird dog. Tailgate legend has a long chapter devoted entirely to these pups. Their stories feature washed-out trial dogs that just needed more time to blossom or the...
Dr. Seth Bynum
Aug 10, 2021
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Waterfowl
Is a Raw Diet the Right Choice for Your Dog?
Few things will turn south an otherwise civil conversation about dogs faster than the topic of what to feed them. As a practicing veterinarian and bird hunter who spends a great deal of time engaged in tailgate banter, I’ve both received and dished out my share of subtle eyerolls and outright looks...
Dr. Seth Bynum
Jun 10, 2021
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Waterfowl Recipes
Recipes
Steve’s Special Roasted Duck
In the world of ducks, there are divers and puddlers. Divers often eat more animal matter, such as fish and aquatic invertebrates, and can have an oily and off-putting taste; puddlers tend to have a more vegetarian diet and therefore a more pleasing flavor.
Because of its simplicity-there’s nothing...
Steven Rinella
Feb 7, 2018
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Recipes
Steakhouse Goose
If I had a signature dish, this steakhouse goose recipe would probably be it. This is the same method I mentioned on a MeatEater Podcast episode, and a recipe I get a lot of requests to share.
The 2018 conservation hunts left me with a freezer full of snow geese, so I cook this dish regularly. When...
Danielle Prewett
Dec 5, 2019
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Recipes
Whole Smoked Duck
Smoking whole might be the most versatile thing you can do with a duck. It can be served warm straight off the smoker, cooled for a charcuterie board, or incorporated into some other dish like duck ravioli. This also uses the entire animal, which the MeatEater crew always tries to do. Even after you...
Rick Matney
Jan 30, 2020
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Recipes
Seared Duck Breast with Apple Sage Chutney
A lot of hunters are intimidated by cooking wild duck. If you are, you should not be. Steven Rinella shares the perfect way to prepare wild duck. There are many different duck recipes out there, this one is simple and is a sure way to make you enjoy cooking and eating wild ducks.
Brought to you by...
MeatEater Staff
Dec 19, 2017
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Recipes
Duck Reuben Sandwich
I like to follow the mantra "set it and forget it" with this recipe. We're all busy, right? And the two most important steps to making these delicious sandwiches involve waiting. Pop the duck breasts in the brine, tuck them in the back of the fridge, and remove the meat in a few days, then toss them...
Lukas Leaf
Dec 16, 2021
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Recipes
Duck à l'Orange
This recipe comes from Episode 2 of Duck Camp Dinners featuring professional chef and hunter Jean-Paul Bourgeois. You can catch every episode of Duck Camp Dinners here.
This pot of Franco-Cajun goodness is a duck camp favorite at the Hobo Hilton. It's been said that if it grows together it goes...
Jean-Paul Bourgeois
Oct 22, 2021
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Waterfowl Hunting Tactics
Waterfowl
3 Spreads Duck Hunters Don’t Use Often Enough
We all have that waterfowling buddy who moves the duck decoys incessantly, always looking for something to tweak. It might not even be legal shooting light yet but they’ve rearranged the spread five times. If you don’t have that friend, you probably are that friend. But since the goal is convincing...
Sean Weaver
Aug 18, 2021
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Waterfowl
What You Need to Know About Duck Decoy Spreads
Waterfowl decoys are visual aids that serve to attract ducks and geese and convince them that an area is safe for landing. The placement and number of decoys that one uses is highly situational, but wind direction is always a major factor.
Like airplanes, ducks and geese approach their landing areas...
Steven Rinella
Sep 15, 2018
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Waterfowl
How to Scout for Ducks and Geese
For waterfowl hunters, scouting often means hours of windshield time scanning skies, fields, and marshes. It also means hard work, devising a plan, and a bit of luck. Without scouting, a waterfowl hunter’s chances for success go down the drain.
But to say that scouting just boils down to driving...
John Pollmann
Sep 30, 2020
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Waterfowl
How to Kill Ducks at Midday
The half hour before sunrise is the favorite time of the day for most duck hunters, and for good reason: there’s a flurry of activity as the marsh wakes up and many birds move from their roost to their feed. But that quick action is commonly followed by a long lull, sending many duck hunters packing...
Sean Weaver
Oct 27, 2021
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Waterfowl
3 Reasons You Suck at Calling Ducks
It’s time to be honest with yourself. Your buddy sounds way better on a call, everyone in the blind tells you to “take it easy” when you so much as quack, your sole job in the blind is running the spinner remote, and every time you try a new duck call, it just doesn’t sound like the guy that sold it...
Sean Weaver
Dec 15, 2021
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Waterfowl
The Best Waterholes That Duck Hunters Ignore
Whether in a field or on a lake, it’s hard not to love the sight of thousands of birds. But big numbers don’t always mean successful hunts, and oftentimes some of the best hunting can be on small water with low numbers of birds.
One of the best examples of small water is the standard cattle pond...
Sean Weaver
Sep 15, 2021
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Species & Habitats
Waterfowl
The Truth About Duck Vision
If you spend a single day out hunting waterfowl, you’ll quickly learn that their eyesight is almost second to none. They can pick out even the most hidden blinds, they’ll flare off the simplest of movements, and they have an uncanny ability to see and land with a lone real duck instead of your...
Sean Weaver
Oct 19, 2021
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Waterfowl
The Truth About the Molt Migration
Every summer, waterfowl across North America have to figure out where they’ll go to molt. The where, why, and who have been misunderstood by hunters for years, but knowing how the molt migration works is valuable and important.
What is the Molt Migration?
Every year, geese (and all waterfowl) lose...
Sean Weaver
Sep 1, 2021
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Waterfowl
Are Flooded Cornfields Altering Duck Migrations?
The worst season ever? If you skim through various waterfowl hunting forums and social media pages, you’d certainly think last duck season was a bust. Many hunters across the country spent more time griping about the lack of ducks than they did shooting ducks. In some circles, intentionally flooded...
David Hart
Jun 4, 2019
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Ducks
A Species Profile on Mallards
Duck hunting in North America usually means that mallards are the target species. A big flock of greenheads flying into a decoy spread instills excitement into the hearts of even the most seasoned duck hunters.
Mallards are the most common North American duck species, and the most commonly hunted...
Steven Rinella
Jul 9, 2018
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Ducks
4 Plants Every Duck Hunter Should Know
Most ducks are opportunistic omnivores, feeding on a wide variety of plants, insects, invertebrates, and fish. From sunflower seeds to gizzard shad, I’ve seen them eat just about anything they can get down their gullet.
The plants listed below are the crème de la crème. These cornerstones of duck...
Sean Weaver
Jun 15, 2021
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Ducks
Wood Duck Profile
Regarded by most hunters as the most beautiful species of North American waterfowl, wood duck males, or drakes, are colorful enough to be mistaken for some exotic jungle species.
The places that wood ducks call home are equally pretty. They prefer small, heavily wooded bodies of water such as beaver...
Steven Rinella
Jul 15, 2018
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Ducks
The Language of Ducks by Sam Terrell
Words by Sam Terrell
The first difficult word I ever learned was gregarious. It’s an adjective with two definitions. The first is in reference to people being fond of company, and the second is in relation to animals living in flocks or loosely organized communities. As a duck hunter coming from a...
MeatEater Staff
Aug 3, 2018
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Duck Report Podcasts
The MeatEater Podcast
Ep. 297: Crap No!
Steven Rinella talks with Sean Weaver, Dylan Graves, Max Barta, and Phil Taylor.Topics discussed: "Steve, Cal, and Rorke Denver walk into a tiki bar...;" guiding in Kansas; eating Bugles with Cheez Whiz and olives; the inseparable duo of Sean and Max; shooting Sean's upcoming waterfowl show, Duck...
Steven Rinella
Nov 1, 2021
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The MeatEater Podcast
Ep. 304: The Fish Shack's Revenge - A Tiki Christmas Family Feud Extravaganza Blowout
Steven Rinella talks with Matt Rinella, Danny Rinella, Kevin Gillespie, Ryan Callaghan, Brody Henderson, Sean Weaver, Hunter Spencer, Phil Taylor, Corinne Schneider, and Janis Putelis. Topics discussed: Phil and Kevin's shared love of pop-up tiki bars; the incredible land masses that would open up...
Steven Rinella
Dec 20, 2021
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The MeatEater Podcast
Ep. 307: Talking About Things That Are Not Sexy to Talk About
Steven Rinella talks with Doug Duren, Jim Heffelfinger, Richie Baker, Ross Copperman, Sean Weaver, Brody Henderson, Spencer Neuharth, Phil Taylor, and Corinne Schneider.Topics discussed: The Doug Duren Fact-Checking Alert App; Jim's sticker and the correct pronunciation of "coues"; Steve as a punt...
Steven Rinella
Jan 3, 2022
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The MeatEater Podcast
Ep. 314: Skip the Flip
Steven Rinella talks with Stu Miller, Brody Henderson, Rick Hutton, Seth Morris, Chester Floyd, and Phil Taylor. Topics discussed: Danny Rinella's theory about Bill Clinton and bike helmets; Stu's educational videos at Coon Creek Outdoors; on whether you can be a Southerner in a state where people...
Steven Rinella
Feb 14, 2022
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The MeatEater Podcast
Ep. 320: Rut, The Dating App
Steven Rinella talks with Janis Putelis, Kevin Gillespie, Sean Weaver, Maggie Hudlow, Phil Taylor, and Corinne Schneider.Topics discussed: MeatEater's dating app idea called "Rut"; bison as livestock or wild game; when critters know damn well that hunting season is on and go hide; how Steve wants to...
Steven Rinella
Mar 14, 2022
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The MeatEater Podcast
Ep. 333: Enduring with Cameron Hanes
Steven Rinella talks with Karl Malcolm, Rick Smith, Dirt Myth, Seth Morris, and Chester Floyd.
Topics discussed: Cam's new book, Endure, is out!; when an adult acts like an ass and accosts Steve's kid; the shit you find in turkeys; Jani's hens running into the house to nest their eggs on the kitchen...
Steven Rinella
May 16, 2022
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The MeatEater Podcast
Ep. 344: That Ringing In Your Ears That Drives You Nuts
Steven Rinella talks with Grace Sturdivant, Janis Putelis, Sean Weaver, Garrett Long, Seth Morris, Chester Floyd, and Phil Taylor.
Topics discussed: Being an Elvis fan; from radio DJ to audiologist to OtoPro founder; creating a new hearing test with various nature sounds, animal calls, and turkey...
Steven Rinella
Jun 27, 2022
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The MeatEater Podcast
Ep. 297: Crap No!
Steven Rinella talks with Sean Weaver, Dylan Graves, Max Barta, and Phil Taylor.Topics discussed: "Steve, Cal, and Rorke Denver walk into a tiki bar...;" guiding in Kansas; eating Bugles with Cheez Whiz and olives; the inseparable duo of Sean and Max; shooting Sean's upcoming waterfowl show, Duck...
Steven Rinella
Nov 1, 2021
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The MeatEater Podcast
Ep. 304: The Fish Shack's Revenge - A Tiki Christmas Family Feud Extravaganza Blowout
Steven Rinella talks with Matt Rinella, Danny Rinella, Kevin Gillespie, Ryan Callaghan, Brody Henderson, Sean Weaver, Hunter Spencer, Phil Taylor, Corinne Schneider, and Janis Putelis. Topics discussed: Phil and Kevin's shared love of pop-up tiki bars; the incredible land masses that would open up...
Steven Rinella
Dec 20, 2021
Read More
The MeatEater Podcast
Ep. 307: Talking About Things That Are Not Sexy to Talk About
Steven Rinella talks with Doug Duren, Jim Heffelfinger, Richie Baker, Ross Copperman, Sean Weaver, Brody Henderson, Spencer Neuharth, Phil Taylor, and Corinne Schneider.Topics discussed: The Doug Duren Fact-Checking Alert App; Jim's sticker and the correct pronunciation of "coues"; Steve as a punt...
Steven Rinella
Jan 3, 2022
Read More
The MeatEater Podcast
Ep. 314: Skip the Flip
Steven Rinella talks with Stu Miller, Brody Henderson, Rick Hutton, Seth Morris, Chester Floyd, and Phil Taylor. Topics discussed: Danny Rinella's theory about Bill Clinton and bike helmets; Stu's educational videos at Coon Creek Outdoors; on whether you can be a Southerner in a state where people...
Steven Rinella
Feb 14, 2022
Read More
The MeatEater Podcast
Ep. 320: Rut, The Dating App
Steven Rinella talks with Janis Putelis, Kevin Gillespie, Sean Weaver, Maggie Hudlow, Phil Taylor, and Corinne Schneider.Topics discussed: MeatEater's dating app idea called "Rut"; bison as livestock or wild game; when critters know damn well that hunting season is on and go hide; how Steve wants to...
Steven Rinella
Mar 14, 2022
Read More
The MeatEater Podcast
Ep. 333: Enduring with Cameron Hanes
Steven Rinella talks with Karl Malcolm, Rick Smith, Dirt Myth, Seth Morris, and Chester Floyd.
Topics discussed: Cam's new book, Endure, is out!; when an adult acts like an ass and accosts Steve's kid; the shit you find in turkeys; Jani's hens running into the house to nest their eggs on the kitchen...
Steven Rinella
May 16, 2022
Read More
The MeatEater Podcast
Ep. 344: That Ringing In Your Ears That Drives You Nuts
Steven Rinella talks with Grace Sturdivant, Janis Putelis, Sean Weaver, Garrett Long, Seth Morris, Chester Floyd, and Phil Taylor.
Topics discussed: Being an Elvis fan; from radio DJ to audiologist to OtoPro founder; creating a new hearing test with various nature sounds, animal calls, and turkey...
Steven Rinella
Jun 27, 2022
Read More