A good trip to a part of Maine that I’d never visited before – down east/Grand Lake. A cottage in Pembroke is sounding pretty attractive; you’d have the ocean, upland bird covers, trout fishing – don’t know if stripers get that far north. We saw moose, bald eagles, Canada – with that kind of foreign policy resume, it’s only a matter of time before the State Dept. calls. Lots of walking for not too many birds – I think the woodcock flights are still north of us.
I think this is Pink Earth (Dibaeis baeomyces).
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You said “woodcock”
But seriously, the woodcock is a really beautiful bird – exquisite – I’ve only ever seen one dead, and it blows my mind that someone would hunt them. Larousse Gastronomie doesn’t even have a good recipe!
They are amazing birds – I always feel some remorse after killing something – never more so than w/ timberdoodles (woodcock). Some people don’t like their taste, but I wouldn’t hunt them if I didn’t eat (and enjoy) ’em.
I’m surprised that Larousse doesn’t have anything – there are a couple distinctive European traditions:
– woodcock and snipe are the 2 birds I know of w/ edible intestines. Trail (guts) on toast points is a delicacy.
– woodcock are usually served w/ head on (I’m told it’s to prevent an unscrupulous restaurateur from trying to pass squab off as woodcock). One takes the head off, toasts it over a candle and eats it.