Wild weather/eating

The day  after Storm Arwen I found a beautiful bird dead outside the house. Its long beak (for prising worms out of the ground)and its rich brown dappled plumage (for concealment among  leaf litter),  indicated it was a woodcock (see extra). They are shy birds,  night flyers known to collide occasionally with walls and windows.  Most are native but some arrive from Northern Europe in late autumn so this one may have been winging in when it met its end. Sad to say they are shot for sport and have a reputation for making  tasty eating too. Well, why waste it? Son Huw never misses an opportunity to try something new so he plucked and hung the bird  overnight before roasting it for  breakfast and eating the choice bits on toast.   He pronounced it very good.

Not everyone's cup of tea I grant but road kill is an established source of wild protein, and as a small child walking along the local river with my father we spotted a large salmon abandoned by an otter that must have fled at out approach. Why waste it? Welcome booty - I still have a photo somewhere.

I've been following the progress of  professional forager Monica Wilde (the name is pure coincidence) who has just concluded a year of eating only wild food. It's involved a lot of plants and fungi, a fair amount of fish and meat and very little starch apart from a few roots and a little flour made from nuts and seeds. She's come to the end in superb health and with only a moderate weight loss.

It's well worth reading about Monica in the link (and below). She's on a mission to encourage us all to be more aware, and more protective of the natural environment even if we don't go as far as eating wild protein. 
Her website


Many thanks for the birthday greetings and good wishes. As usual I'm struggling to keep up with comments and replies. I should be less distracted now that the family gathering is over.