Hap, your correct, however in referring to a song bird (Oriole, cardinal, etc.)you can’t even possess in any way even a single feather.
phillip43,
I’m a fan of starling as a soft hackle. You can find a few recipes on Donald’s site that include starling. http://www.dtnicolson.dial.pipex.com/
At Han’s site you can go to the search feature, type in “starling” and you will get a bunch of flies tied with starling
OR
you could click this if you are less adventurous.
mcsteff
Philip43,
I believe Jeff Hamm had a starling pattern posted on the FOTW a few weeks ago called the Water Cricket.
Beaver
The more I think about this the more peeved I get.
Today my cat delivered another songbird carcas to the door. Not much useable after it was cat food, but suppose I had taken a few feathers.
Now I go to a tying show and some federal SOB comes around from tyer to tyer like he was actually interested in seeing you tie, and says “What kind of feather is that?”
You, knowing your cat made a present of the bird to you, says innocently: “Robin, I think.”
Now you’re in it deep.
How stupid is that?
Yes, there are jerks like the eagle traders in the article shown above who should be punished severly, but if the feds are actually going to waste their time and my tax money on fly tyers they should be ashamed.
Get unpeaved Bob.
W/O said laws governing restrictions every idiot in your county who wanted a Bluejay b/c he liked blue hackles would simply say “Oh, I picked it up 'cause a car hit it!”…(after he put his pellet gun back in the closet.)
Who’s to say where you got it!
A few seasons back when I was out muskie fishing in no. MN. my bride and I watched as this really large eagle perched in a tree on the island I was working around. I worked in close to him before he decided to split. In so doing, a nice wing feather “luckily” detached and floated down to the water, approx. 15’ out from the shoreline.
You guessed it. Because we’re into the tying thing my bride knew we couldn’t pick it up. I used my bow-mount trolling motor to slip over to it and just smiled. Big wing feather…
It would’ve been nice…
Jeremy.
what i would like to know, is why so many birds are protected in the first place. i can understand birds of prey and endangered species, but why are so many songbirds protected? i know most of them arent endangered. the robins, cardinals, bluejays, finches, are so common around here. there are far more of them than doves (which have a season on them) and sparrows and starlings. now yes i understand some songbirds are, the goldfinch is a rare sight around here, but WHY so many others?
p.s anyone know if grackles are protected in virginia? there are so many around here and i cant find any conclusive answers about the legality of them. I definitely wouldn’t mind snitching a few of them along with some sparrows and starlings. just gotta find if its legal first.
if we didnt have laws protecting birds, they would probably be hunted to extiction
maybe this will help. bird laws: http://www.birdiq.com/learn/laws.html
theres a paragraph regarding molted feathers on the ground, picking up roadkill, What laws dictate possession of birds, feathers, and other bird products? etc etc etc
Redneck,
In some states Mourning Doves are considered songbirds. No Season, no Shoot.
I was pheasant hunting over a ditch that someone else killed a burrowing owl and tossed it in. The biots were interesting, to say the least…but I left it lay.
I get the ‘reasons’ for the laws…as someone else wrote, if you could use found feathers, then you could just kill all the birds you wanted and say you ‘found’ them…besdies, we can get all the feathers we really need from readily available sources…
But, the fines and penalties are a bit ridiculous.
You get less of a penalty for reckless driving…not to mention speeding or running a red light…you get less of a penalty for a first offense drug violation, including sales…most theft offenses and a whole list of misdemeanors and ‘minor’ felonies don’t get those kind of penalties…battery (hitting someone), burglary (first offense), loads of weapons violations and just about anything you can do in a car that doesn’t kill or injure isn’t even close…if your neighbor shoots your dog…if your sister gets beat up by her husband…penalties are LESS…
If you inadvertantly hit one of these birds with your car, there is no penalty, but pick up a feather and…
How about some equity in the laws? I know it’s naieve to expect it, but I just have trouble thinking that some guy using some found song bird feathers in a fly should be subject to penalties thought fit for assault with a deadly weapon or grand theft.
It probably should be illegal, but maybe as a low grade infraction with a reasonable fine…but a felony with a 250k penalty??? Jail time? For bird feathers? Just seems a bit excessive to me.
Buddy
Coach
Not to put too fine a point on your anger, but I have a huge problem with the concept of bird-killing cats. Many recognize (and the studies all show) cats as one of the worst predators on many of the rarest song birds.
If I had a bird-killing cat I would use it for zonker strips, no matter what I thought of said cat personally.
art with no affection for feral felines…
I have five cats that all go outdoors
After all the snow melted this year, I found that the yard was littered with bodies of field mice, shrews, rats and voles. 50-60 of them easily.
But no birds, no feathers
DDR, they are protected because back in the day, people took what they wanted, when they wanted, without considering the consequences. I would hope that in this day, we are informed enough to consider the impacts of our use of apparently limitless resources.
And if you think birds are doing just fine, you might want to take a look at this site:
http://www.stateofthebirds.org/
"In addition, the report indicates a 40 percent decline in grassland birds over the past 40 years, a 30 percent decline in birds of aridlands, and high concern for many coastal shorebirds. Furthermore, 39 percent of species dependent on U.S. oceans have declined. "
Hap,
See my photo in this week’s article “Fly Fishng Cat”
How could I ever consider zonker strips? But I do use his fur for dubbing.
i didn’t mean that all birds should be taken off the protected list. as i said, i can understand why a lot of them are protected, but in some cases i don’t see any reason for some specific bird species to be protected. Robins for example, are in absolutely no danger of extinction, and are doing very well as a species. i recall reading an article when I first asked the questions of bird legality, and it had said robins are at their highest numbers ever in documented years. the grackle (i dont know if they are protected or not) is also doing very well and is in no danger of extinction.
sparrows and starlings are legal to shoot year round, though there is no real season on them, and they are doing very well. doves, which can be hunted in some states, are also obviously doing well (or they would be protected).
im just asking why some of the most prolific songbirds cant be taken off the protected list.
I have to say I am flabergasted. Oh my god there is a law that says I can’t have the feathers. Big deal. Six pages of posts over nonsense. If the government wants to bust me for using a feather I found on the ground so be it. My choice. We as humans seem to stick our nose in mother natures business to much and she bites let me tell ya. We have a law here in Idaho that says it is a felony to spit on the sidewalk. I make it a point everytime I pass the cop shop I spit on the sidewalk. Don’t care hope they bust me so the law can be removed from the books. Any Judge in his or her right mind would not impose imprisonment or a fine to anyone using a feather for a fly off a game bird. If I was tying in a expo and a person came up to me and wanted to know where I got the feather I would tell them Cabelas or Sportsmans warehouse or somewhere like that and they could move on. The fact that the fine for holding a song bird feather is greater then a lot worse crimes only tells me that we are stupid for letting the govenment do that to us and folks I include myself in this as well. I feel that if we campaigned as much as the animal lovers did then we would not have stupid laws on the books. But then again I use barbed hooks and do believe in keeping my fish if I want to. Just my two cents And yes if you would kill a cat for doing what its natural instincts are please refer to my statement about mother nature above.