Geese, incoming and staying here: A late fall hunt (and eating)

Through a slit in the sliding wood door of the pit blind, I watched dozens of Canada geese flying high in ragged Vs. Guide Jeff Norris, sitting next to me, honked seriously on his goose call. I wondered why until I saw low-flying here-already geese coming out to feed.

Last Wednesday was a good day to be out. For a couple hours, geese coming out to feed in the fields of the Fox River Valley crossed under high-flying migrators arriving.

“Lots of birds coming in this morning; welcome guys,’’ Norris intoned. “The river is right over here. Corn is all over.”

All of the above is why Norris has had nearly a quarter-century run with his Fox Valley Guide Service in the western suburbs.

In my first goose hunt of the fall, I rode with Frank Lagodny, the just-retired Chicago Public School shop teacher I met through his Prosser Wood Duck Ecology Club. Mike Wett made four in the pit.

Cold enough that frost dusted the decoys. It melted quickly under a sun bright enough that Norris warned not to shoot into the sun. (Hello, Manfred Mann.)

If I could shoot, we would have been done within an hour. As it was, the birds were done flying before I bagged my second. Among the usual pit banter (B.S), Norris said they had shot geese banded in Geneva, Ontario and Manitoba so far this season.

The goodness extended from the sassy companionship to an introduction to Ike, Norris’ hard-working 1 1/2-year-old yellow Lab.

Lots of sandhill cranes were moving, too. And specklebelly geese flew near us. Norris said it was the third year in a row for specks.

“Best-tasting goose, easily,” Norris said.

I don’t know about that, but the four of us certainly had food stuffs on our minds.

Back at the hunting shed, we breasted out our geese. I asked if anybody minded if I pulled hearts (a delicacy in my mind) from the chest cavity of the carcasses.

Another regular guest saves goose livers for his wife. A one-time Tribune reporter/editor saves goose legs.

I was glad to hear Wett, Norris and Lagodny had similar growing years: good for tomatoes, poor for jalapenos and sweet peppers.

Norris served Italian goose sandwiches with homemade giardiniera somebody had left at the shed, good hearty food for a crisp morning hunt.

Lagodny and Norris wandered into a sausage discussion. Many of Norris’ customers use Wurst Kitchen, venerable sausage maker (since 1895) in Aurora. I freeze any goose breasts I don’t eat right away, then take them at season’s end to have Jim Carmical of Jim’s Deer Processing in St. Anne make into goose pastrami.

As we left, Norris bestowed a small jar of jalapenos and a quart of homemade dill pickles.

My personal treat came Thursday: sauteing goose hearts, onions, mushrooms and garlic, then stirring in tortellini.

Good time extending the hunt.

Click here for Fox Valley Guide Service info.

HUNTING: Duck hunting in Illinois’ north zone, which ends Tuesday, may run through before ice-up. . . . I will post harvest numbers for the firearm deer seasons at the Sun-Times outdoors page when the second-season harvest figures become available.

WILD THINGS: Weekend weather probably contributed in the rise of cranes at Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area, southeast of Valparaiso, Ind., to 12,530 on Tuesday. Click here for details on visiting.

STRAY CAST: Believing Bud Selig deserves the National Baseball Hall of Fame is as plausible as believing Louie Spray caught the world-record muskie.