Searched the archives and had no luck. Any suppliers carry Egret forms?
Thanks!
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Egrets are a "protected species". So suppliers aren't going to sell forms. "If" you have the proper paper work to mount the bird. Then you're going to have wrap your own body, or do a casting of the original body.
Coyote
Yes..I have the proper forms from the Nature center...shoulc have said that before! Is there a body that would be acceptable substitute?
....For some protected species. Contact them and ask, just because it isn't listed in the catalog, doesn't mean that it won't be available. My first choice would be to call Reasearch, Stefan does a lot of birds that are protected and they DO cary the forms. In fact they have a "common egret" listed in the catalog.
If you do not have the skills to either wrap or carve your own bodies, then I would decline taking the job for the nature center. Anyone without those skills may be able to do an okay job, but many nature centers are known for having poor taxidermy on display. The budgets are low and they don't find skilled people to do the taxidermy. Why ruin a chance to have a decent mount for exhibit.
Back [expletive deleted]uption bus! I have the skills and do wrap many of the birds I do. You are absolutely right about the poor mounts at the centers...I'll give you that. That is exactly the reason why I have been contracted by them....so they get some professional looking mounts! You are also right about the low budgets...would you do two lifesize wolves in a habitat, where both mannikins needed major alterations, the carcasses half-rotted(because the people at the Bureau of Endangered Resources don't have a clue about proper necropsy care), for $1000.00? That's all their budget allowed. I do these projects for next to nothing for the nature centers as a way of giving back to the community. So if I want to save myself a little time by ordering a pre-made body, I think that's my perogative.
But carving a body takes about as much time as searching through a catalogue and ordering it. Damn near every manikan you purchase that is pre-made needs to be modified to fit the individual bird you are working with anyway. Granted, I have been doing taxidermy for 40 years on the side and have only used one purchased bird body, but Stafan Savides offered that information at a seminar he gave. He EVEN modified his own manikans on almost every mount.
I have skinned dozens of egrets and there is quite a difference between immature first year birds, and those from the next two basic age classes. That is aside from the sexual size difference, and regional differences. You never specified the species of egret either - quite a number of species can be white at some phase of the molt. I haven't skinned near as many egrets as Great Blue Herons, but the later varies to extreme measures - much more than ducks. Some torso's of adult Herons from Alberta I prepared would fit into the body cavity of the Florida Subspecies that has the white varient of color.
If you leave your email address I will lend you a number of egret pictures as reference. My bird reference file is a five drawer file cabinet sorted taxonomically so that I have ready reference for all bird species in the world. Specify the pose your envision and I'll sort out some good reference.