I have noticed that a disproportionate number of the pochards (by pochards, I mean the scaups, redheads, ringnecks and cans) that I shot this winter and that our customers have brought in have a LOT of pinfeathers, mainly around the head, chest, neck and scapular regions. This seems strange to me, as these birds were shot mostly in December and January. I even shot a canvas back in LATE Jan. this year and looked at its scapulars, and what do I see? At least 50% were pinfeathers. WTF? I always thought that by that time of year, all moulting would be complete (disregarding the teals and shovelers, which are pretty late moulters). I've almost had to throw away some of my personal birds' skins, b/c once the bird is mounted, it looks like somebody just came in and plucked a bunck of feathers off the bird. I remedied the situation by making the birds hanging dead mounts that ended up looking pretty good, but they couldn't hack any other pose because of the unkempt appearance caused by pinfeather loss. I'm just glad I take the meat out of every duck I shoot before putting its skin in the freezer. That way, if the mount doesn't work out, at least I got a great tasting dinner out ot the deal. Anyhow, I'm just curious if this is a common thing that occurs every year, or was it just a result of a late hatch, or whatever. Any thoughts? Have y'all experienced this? By the way, I live in southern Georgia, which is where most of these divers were shot.
Return to Bird Taxidermy Category Menu
Rob,
Im not sure why theres so many pin feathers but i'm very glad to see someone on this post saying that their consuming their game. I do all the time and im sure theres alot more, its just nice see someone talking about it, other than the idiot dr. duck slayer (jackass)