Actually there are three different types of CDC and while the good long ones are quite limited, there are certainly more than three or four on an average duck that we shoot. These are very young and freshly molted birds and they may not have kept them long enough to damage them much???
I always save the short, heavily-oiled CDC coming right out of the oil gland because I think it shares its oil with the rest of the CDC in the bag…
I guess it all depends on your definition of “good”. I know I get at least a half dozen if not a dozen “good” feathers per bird, plus lots of smaller still usable stuff.
Two envelopes went out in Tuesday’s mail.
Art,
Earlier you mentioned migratory swan in your part of the world. I had never thought of swans as a migratory bird. Does anyone hunt them? Are they good to eat? Or are they just the long legged blondes of the bird world? (Just pretty to look at. Yes, I know that’s sexist but life is what it is.)
We have tundra and trumpeter swans local and migratory. Farther north where there are no trumpeters there is an open season on tundra swans. They are very good eating!
FWIW sandhill cranes are commonly called “flying ribeye” and we have a generous season and limit on them. The rump feathers are worth having for tying, too…
I have eaten one, and that nickname is well deserved. Absolutely AWESOME!
We can’t shoot swans in CA, but CdG is awesome. i like the stuff from specklebellys, and especially from snow geese. White CdG…awesome.
Yes swans are migratory. They are not frequently eaten now, but where once greatly prized for the table.
By good quality CdC I meant of the quality Marc would include in his bags.
Cheers,
A.
I like it! 
But wouldn’t it be CdO? (oie for goose in French?) Or maybe CdA for Anser? Or CdC for Chen?
Strange fact about snows in Alaska… virtually all of them (and that is a lot!) fly through AK until they hit the Arctic Ocean and then hang a left and fly to Russia to nest on Wrangel Island in Siberia’s Chukchi Sea. A small nesting flock has prospered on the Beaufort Sea shore because of the Prudhoe Bay oilfield… predators keep a little distance. But we get virtually no snow goose hunting here.
Man I’m feeling the itch, early goose season just started here and I have had no luck as of yet. But once ducks starts end of the month I’ll hit it hard this year and restock some wood duck and mallard flanks. Hopefully put up a few partridge as well in October. But that pesky thing called work is putting a damper on my hunting and fishing time right now.
Someone from Canada needs to come to the Atlanta area and tell their geese they need to come home in the summer. They are everywhere around here and if you have a nice super green lawn they really like that and the poop like Rottweilers everywhere they go.
Same problem here Jesse… There is a commercial product squeezed from grape seed they spray on ball fields and such to keep the geese off. It works surprisingly well.
Art, if you need some white CDC, just let me know. I happen to know a guy that’s got a pretty decent stash… (truck bed full from spring season)
Thanks, but what I really need is bronze mallard, and gadwall and teal flank… Some years I get enough to make it through but last winter I found myself buying bronze mallard for a spey tying class I taught… I never get a teal or gadwall old enough to have decent flank and I am living on birds shot decades ago…
art
I may have some bronze mallard… I will have to check. I use it to wing my hares ear wets, just cause it looks cool.
If I get down to the coast this year back towards Machias to hunt, I might be able to put a hurting on some greenwing teal, we used to clean up on them. Made for the majority of the birds we would shoot the first few weeks of the season. Most days we’d pluck the birds in the field so many feathers were wasted, but now that I tie a lot more I do it at home where I can take the time to save what I need. I’ll keep it in mind though.
art…will look see if I have any teal flank around here. I may have some sprig too, if you are interested. will PM you if I find anything.
I would certainly use and appreciate good teal flank. I do have tons of material that is hard to come by and reciprocating is a given… Might be a pun there!
I have not forgotten the sprig you gave me before and certainly will do anything I can to make things right.
Hap, Finally got around to looking, no teal, but found a couple bags of sprig I ain’t using. will send you one. PM Sent.