RE: Do you eat Northern Shovelers?
Yall need to do your research on shovelers. First and most important they are not divers.They are a puddle duck just the same as a mallard, gadwall, etc. They haveI call a "catch and trap mouth" they feed invertebrates into their mouth into the frontwhile blowingthe water back out the sideand trapping the invertabrates in. They eat the same things most puddle ducks eat. I hear the same thing from 90% of my customers that come in and hunt with me. I cook shovelers at least one of the nights they hunt with me. I let them bad mouth them and bad mouth them and then I let them eat about 4 or 5 and then tell them what it is. They go away with a different attitude about shovelers. Most people will say it depends what they are sitting on, but that is true in every ducks case. I wouldn't eat a mallard that has been in the saltwater very long. So please lets stop all the rumors about shovelers and do some research on them before you comment because it looks like the majority of you didn't even know they were puddle ducks.
Here is the best way to cook them: Strip them up and season them with cajun seasoning, then put a jap pepper and piece of cream cheese and wrap the strip around these. Wrap a piece of bacon around these and put them on a grill