-1 degrees

I am in the lab today mixing crazy potions in which I will later store small samples of bird blood. Working mind you, but not out catching birds. And yet, the million dollar question today seems to be, "You're not out catching birds?" Um, kids, CNN has called this flesh-searing and skin-burning weather. Why then would I be out there? I already have issues with one toe from my adventures last winter and a recurring numbness problem in my fingers whenever the temperature drops below freezing and you want me to go out when it's minus 1 ?!?! I refuse to kill myself in the name of research. Okay not true, I refuse to freeze to death in the name of research. I'm willing to fall down a mountain side to my death, skid off icy roads in fiery crashes, be eaten by a bear, or shot by a hunter but I draw the line at freezing to death. Besides it would all be in vain, the juncos don't even come out in this weather. Sure you may see a handful at your feeder but my bait piles will be barren. Trust me, I tried this last winter and the winter before that (yes I needed two tries to learn this lesson) and I have learned that when the temps drop in the single digits the juncos disappear.

So the answer to the million dollar question: As my presence in front of you indicates, I'm not out catching birds.

Eat a Duck I Did

So in a step that I would like to think has brought me closer to eating a junco, I ate Balut. For those that don't know, Balut is a fertilized duck egg. Fertilized as in the baby duck has formed in the egg, some 14-21 days of incubation as occured. Fertilized as in you crack it open and if you're with a bunch of scientist into dissection you can see the head and beak and make out wings and legs. It taste like chicken. I wonder if juncos taste like chicken, though when I speculate about eating junco it's usually and adult. You know, song bird on a stick with a bit of barbeque sauce. If I went the young junco route I'd prefer a junco omlet. How many junco eggs would it take to make an omlet?

Some tips on eating Balut:
1. Avoid eating it with a crowd of people standing around. You can thereby avoid exclamations of "Oh! I see it's head!"" Look at it's eye!" and "Are those feathers!" I'm rather heartless, but even I didn't need to notice that or have excessive attention brought to something I could clearly see and was about to put in my mouth.

2. Try to get one freshly out of the pot. Yes it's really hot and you should be careful but when it sits in the pot for too long the yolk over cooks and really the texture of vasculated over cooked yolk is more gross than the texture of developing duck fetus.

3. Chew. And chew it well. You may want to swallow your spoonful whole but really it's just a bit too solid. Trust me when I say a gob of unchewed baby duck hitting the back of your throat really stimulates the gag reflex. Besides if you don't chew you'll miss out on the chicken flavor...