Hi all,
I found a daed owl at the side of the road, it didn't have much damage, and for abit of fun thourght I'd skin and mount it.
I skinned it without much trouble and nailed it to a board. Put salt on the skin and put it in the shed.
Somehow I now need to soften it, without making it rot and mount it on a copy of the body which I have made out of foam, balsa and wire.
I am really only doing it for the fun of it. I am not in the market for a training course and don't have a credit card so can't buy a book over the net.
I have heard of putting ammonia on a dried skin to make it pliable, or I was considering some kind of mineral oil.
Does anyone have any ideas? My bargain basement approach probably does not appeal to many of you, and I may have a look more seriously at the sport later on.
Cheers Barney
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Not sure what kind of owl your talking about but in most states it`s illegal to even keep their feathers or body parts in your possession...just a heads up
Barney
I don't know where you are located, and really don't even want to know! But be sure to check your local regulations on picking up "road kill" , especially an owl! It may save you from a lot of hassle in the long run!
Personally I think your either a "fed" , a simple minded idiot or just a common drunk with a computer! Forgive me if I'm wrong!
I don't know why you have been told to check your state regulations, this is FEDERAL and is illegal. PERIOD. No Exceptions! Well, if you are a Native American with access to a permit, but that is another story.
Bottom line, dispose of the evidence right away.
Remember...............this site is accessible world wide! (repeat after me... WWW = WORLD WIDE WEB)
The "states" are just a small portion of this big world. A lot of countries couldn't care less about owls!
I can't remember how many times I have answered a question here where I mentioned that we could do a much better job of answering the question if we knew the location(state) where they located.
I have also noticed that people in foreign countries almost always identify themselvesd and make it known where they are from.(Must be the superior education systems.)
Finally Dizzy, I see that you made the a same assumption, as you identified "Barney" as a fed. Then you insulted him as an idiot or a drunk. And you accuse "ME" of having a brain fart!
Get some water and mix borax with it.This is a borax solution borax can be bought in any store.Get a q-tip and proceed to soften skin.After it is soft add borax and proceed to mount the owl....Lloyd
Old poot, you're right I am a walking "brain fart"!
Also, yes it would be easier if the person posting a question filled in all the blanks etc. As for insulting this inteligent soul known as "Barney"...I included an apology! Ha! I wouldn't want to come off as a grumpy old brain fart!
Dizzy
Barney, assuming you're in the states, the mere act of being in possession of any species of owl is $5,000 per bird fine (maximum). I spent several years in rehabbing raptors and was immediately - first day - taken aside and thoroughly advised that any and all feathers, pellets, etc., would be collected and either filed for imping on other birds, or incinerated. I was then handed a file folder containint six certified copies of the facility's federal permits to be in my person anytime I transported a bird offsite. When we gave tours of our facility to the public, there were at least two of the staff present. One of us gave the tour, the other(s) monitored the group to ensure that no parts or pieces were picked up and carried off the grounds. USFWS has no sense of humor about possessing federally protected species. Now, if you live someplace else, check with your country's wildlife authority. As far as Barney being a fed, I've known a couple federal agents and they're generally too busy to be trolling online for potential violators, and even if they did, there are a few folks out there with the federal permits to handle or have handled raptors in the past, and, frankly, these guys got bigger fish to fry than some common Joe with roadkilled hooters.
Hi all,
Thanks for the tip about borax, Lloyd, I will go with it and inform you about the results.
As to being a fed, drunk, idiot, or US citizen, I'll have to say 'none of the above'.
I'm a biologist (fish not birds) from Australia, and since there wasn't much on taxidermy down-under, I checked out yr forum. As far as the regs go, I've looked on the net and haven't found anything definate. I will check out the national parks & wildlife service and if they want the skin they are welcome to it. You can be pretty sure that you guys have much tougher regs than us as you have many more people and much less wildlife. The owl is a boobook, a common wide-spread species.
I agree you would have been able to give a better answer knowing all the details but I didn't want to put my email address down as I might get 3,000 spam emails and assorted viruses. Better just to post it on the net and see what resulted.
Back to the technical aspects, I boiled the skull to remove meat that might rot. It seemed to have definate cartilage circles around the eyes. I am going to try and build these up with modeling clay. I have frozen the body in the pose I want the owl in, and have used this as a template to try and make exact copy. I expect foam and balsa to degrade after a while and realise that it is probably not as good as fibreglass, but this is not an important project.
Thanks for your helpful answers, will definately check out the regulations, and whether permits are required. NPWS are welcome to it, but if I hadn't picked it up, it would have decomposed by now.
Cheers Barney
Barney, and good luck with the mount. If you post pics online someday, let us know. I'd like to see it.
....Just think what people do when they collect bird skins from Africa and send them to the states.These skins will be mounted later no doubt contact outlines would be taken and each skin numbered....so they would have some idea how to make a form later and mount them up.What is interesting is once the bird is mounted chances it will be around for a few hundred years are good....Lloyd