Snow goose feathers

[tigfly]

A friend of mine hunts for snow geese. I asked him to save the wing quills, but I also wanted to get the goose shoulder feathers. My question is where exactly are the goose shoulder feathers? Are they the feathers along the top of the wing near the body or are they the feathers between the wings on the back? Also what other feathers would be useful for tying?

[kbproctor]

The wing primaries are really good for biots. The shoulder feathers are the ones at the top of the wing. They are 3+" long and the quill runs pretty much right down the middle. I would think just about all the feathers could be used in one fashion or another.

[GrayGhost]

why pray tell asking only for a few feather, ask for the full skin tell you you'll skin if for him, there is a life time of feather there for tying that are hard to come by
Ghost

[Panman]

TigFly: I shot a Ross Goose about 5 years ago and saved most of the body feathers. I have tied literally hundreds of flies with those feathers and they can be dyed any color you want. A Ross Goose & a Snow Goose have the same type of feathers & coloration with the dfference being the Ross is a smaller bird.

I suggest you ask your friend to save you all of the feathers you or he can. One goose will last a long time. In addition ask for the feathers off of a mature bird. The younger Snow Goose' feathers are not as white as those from a mature bird.

Don't forget the CDC. One bird has about 60 CDC feathers.

Tim

[quivira kid]

Those natural white CDC feathers are pretty cool... I've always got at least 2 gallon Ziplock bags with me in my blind bag to collect feathers these days!

[tigfly]

I think I will ask if I could get the whole skin and wings, but I am not sure how he will feel about transporting one back from out west. If he does skin it any advice on how to treat it? Salt it and bag it? Just getting a bagful of loose feathers is not really what I had in mind. thanks for the replies.

[tigfly]

I forgot to ask, where exactly are the CDC feathers located? I understand they are near the base of the tail, but on the top or underneath? I've never tied with CDC but would like to try it if I could get some from the geese.

[Panman]

tigfly: You have raised a couple of points - 1. CDC & 2. What feathers to save & how to save them.

1. CDC Feathers. These funny looking feathers are located on the back of the bird right close to where the tail feathers start. They surround a gland that looks like a pimple. The feathers have different barbs than the other feathers on the bird. To learn about CDC feathers I suggest you read the below link and do a Google on CDC feathers and a search on FAOL.

2. What feathers to save. Like I said on my previous post - save all you can. Since your friend is traveling "west" I can't answer on what he is willing or able to save for you. Skinning a bird can be very time consuming and a pain in the rear to do a good job. Then the skin would have to be scrapped to remove the fat and treated with borax or salt to preserve. Or it could be put on ice until he gets home and gives them for you. While snow goose feathers are good for tying and have a lot of uses remember what you are getting is basically a white feather. Of course some of the feathers on the wing are black. Unless it is easy for your friend to bring back the feathers attached to the bird I would highly recommend that you settle for some loose feathers. I would give him a few plastic bags and ask for: 1. The breast feathers; 2. The Tail feathers and 3: The wing feathers.

That should give you a great start and if you run out of feathers you can go buy a nice white tame duck or goose, slaughter it and make a great meal out of it and use the feathers for tying.

Hope this helps.

Tim

http://www.danica.com/flytier/articl.../cdc_types.htm

[quivira kid]

Tim described it just about right. On top of the goose, right above the base of the tailfeathers. On Canadas, it's where the black feathers of the back and the white rump feathers meet... Easy as pie to find once ya know where to look! If your buddy gets into the snows, you'll have more CDC than you'll know what to do with!

[tigfly]

Thanks Pan and QV for the advice, I think I will try to get the loose feathers and see if I get some pictures of the feathers that I can pass along to my friend so he will have a better idea what to look for. I really want the whitest feathers I can get so that is why my interest in the snow goose.