An Incredible Duck Skin for Fly Tying

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We managed to find a bunch of these little guys last weekend and I just prepared a skin for tying feathers. Prior to skinning and cleaning up this bird was chosen as one not worth mounting due to blood stains and such. It takes me about 15 minutes to skin and another 15 to wash them. I can wash a number at a time to reduce the total time.

At that point I either blow dry on high which takes quite a while with a duck that is so dense with down... they are super sponges! In the old days when I was doing tons of them I ran a tumbler half-full of sawdust and borax to both dry and fluff them. My tumbler was large enough to do a dozen or so mallards at a time... But I have not done them in quite a long time.

Also, USFWS has decided in all their infinite wisdom that the law allowing waterfowl feathers to be sold for fly tying does not include feathers still on skin... Which destroys the very best filing system going.

Here is one of the birds while we were still out on the water:


Here is the prepared skin drying:


Closeup of the head... each color change is drawn across every feather in the change zone as a hard line:


The flanks and shoulders... love that cinnamon flank for dry fly wings!


Another shot to show how large the flanks are:


And finally, the speculum feathers:


Another neat thing about these birds is the way they react to UV light... They glow very purple under blacklight.
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To be clear, the whole bird is not the same bird as the skinned version. Left the name off intentionally for those looking for a small challenge. They are very common in the right places... but those places are difficult to get to.

[ScottP]

Left the name off intentionally for those looking for a small challenge.

Surely, you jest

[Panman]

As I remember them little rascals are not too bad as table fare.

Tim

[hap]

As I remember them little rascals are not too bad as table fare.

Tim

Tim
I love ducks! But for tablefare these are edible, but not particularly habit-forming! You have to work at it to cover the taste of the shellfish they eat. I marinate them in strong acids like vinegar and oil salad dressing or similar for several days before cooking and it makes them presentable.

Never having had them from your neck of the beach they may be far better. For example, these is nothing worse than a coastal AK mallard right now. They are sitting in salmon streams eating nothing but eggs and rotting flesh!
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[Panman]

Hap

The ones we harvested were taken from a fresh water lake somewhere around Anchorage. It was so long ago(1961) I forget the name of the lake .

Tim

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Surely, you jest

Of course, I jest! But for some it is a smaller challenge than for others...