Down south they call them Hollywood Mallards cause they're like all those people in Hollywood, always smiling....
The Hooded Mergansers aren't bad at all if you just breast them out. The trick is to get all the skin and fat off the meat. We usually throw them into a stew or crock pot dish and you can't tell them from any other kind of duck. The other two kinds of mergansers we have here are very fishy and not really edible, even skinning them doesn't take off the fish oil.
I've shot some Canada Geese over your way and was amazed at how big they were. I'd killed a few what would be Branta Canadensis Maxima here but ours aren't quite as large anymore because they're all inbred with the next subspecies down the size ladder. Yours are the pure "Giants" so are somewhat larger than most of the ones we get here.
Destry
