While hunting in Saskatchewan the first week of October it rained for 40 hours straight making the fields very wet and not drive-able by vehicles unless you knew someone with a bigger vehicle to pull you out. We didn’t want to chance anything and surly didn’t want to leave big ruts in the farmers fields so we didn’t drive in the fields after it had rained until they dried out. Since we couldn’t drive in the fields we had to plan a light hunt because we would need to carry in the decoys we needed and our gear for the hunt. We decided that crane hunting was the way to go. You don’t need many decoy’s for crane hunting so it would only take us a couple trips to get everything out in the field for the hunt.
Once again I got to hunt with Guilty so she got to retrieve a couple crane’s that I shot. There isn’t a season for crane in WI so this was her first official crane hunt as a young girl and she did awesome. She picked them right up and brought them back to me like she was a pro. We do eat the crane as we feel if we shoot it we eat it. It really is a good tasting meat when you get a young one. We had fun this day.
We have never heard of, or thought of hunting crane. My mom is such a picky eater, it is a good thing she doesn’t hunt! Sounds like a lot of work hunting in such wet conditions.
How do you use the crane?
Usually we cut it in cubes and blacken it and fry in butter. Just sear it so it’s not fully cooked.
Interesting. Is it gamey at all?
Wow! I’m always so impressed at the size of birds that your gang retrieves!
well done Guilty!!! I had no clue that cranes are edible… are they like pheasants on the table or different?
They are more like duck and geese. They are a dark meat. I actually like pheasant better as I like white meat better. But it still tastes good and will eat it.
They are such beautiful birds, that it’s hard for me to think of you hunting them. But I appreciate the fact that you do eat them and don’t just do it for sport.