Some Very Cool Soft Hackles
Just the feathers, no flies yet...
My son brought this to me a couple days ago and it is skinned, washed, fluffed, and drying. It is a common, legal game bird...
I really like these upper wing coverts with the distinctive markings that scream "shoulder" on an Atlantic salmon fly...
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...pecoverts2.jpg
Slightly different view of th same feathers:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ipecoverts.jpg
The white-edged grizzly axillary is so nice it is a shame there are so few of them on a bird:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...axillaries.jpg
Well, it is a thread on soft hackles supposedly, so there should be some, right? Flanks are grizzly and perhaps as large as #12, but mostly smaller:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...snipeflank.jpg
The tail feathers have some neat "eyes" that do not show well in the photos, but would make neat one-off display flies. The rump gets into a soft reddish buff color with some faint barring... Outstanding soft hackle stuff that probably goes to #14 or smaller on the large side.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1.../sniperump.jpg
The neck has lots of faintly marked soft hackles that will go as small as anyone wants to tie...
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1.../snipenape.jpg
Left the bird name out just for those that may want to guess at what it is for a bit... The last photo is likely the giveaway for the unsure...
art