3rd Duck - Please Critique

With your attitude and willingness to learn and ability to apply it has made it obvious to me that you have what it takes to make it as a taxidermist. You seem to be improving as you continue.

 

Your humerus bones are still too far away from the body, (kinda like tucking your elbows into your sides) which is causing the gap between your tertials and the body. A bird would lose all the air there and would lose lift. Looking good!

 

What wild things said. Are you wiring into the wrist?

Once sewed up and the bird is still on the table collapse your wings. Then once up on the stand and you are ready to do wings feel the bones from the underside. Make sure they are even. Feel the first joint(elbow) make sure they are even and also laying almost parallel to the body. There should be a slight angle to them coming away from the body at the elbow. Then grab the elbow joint and the wrist and holding the humerous in place open the elbow joint to where you want it. Then when you go to tape or clip your primaries only open them at the wrist keeping the humerous and elbow joint in place.

You may maul up a bird or 2 but once you understand where the bones go and how the joints open you have to be feeling it up and messing up feathers.

 

I wire like you did. Some people do wire to the wrist. Yes on the almost parallel. I think Breakthrough#49 has some images that David Luke did that will show you. I'll see if I can dig it up.

The straw idea is a good one. I use old arrow shafts.

 

I'm assuming you are stripping your wings during cleaning (inverting to the wrist) instead of cutting open and cleaning. That's what I do on most of my mounts. Now when posing the birds you need to make sure the base of the tertials are pulled all the way back to where they originally came off at - right at the elbow. It's real easy to let them all kinda ride up the ulna bone toward the wrist. Keep them pulled down to the elbows. Get use to broken or no bones. Replace them with whatever!! I use 1/8" wooden dowels quite a lot along with different size wires. I usually have to card my tertials back into the correct position.

I've always have wired into the wrist BUT since going to a seminar that Brooke and Spencer put on last spring I now don't and have been liking the outcome. Had a mallard today that both radius and ulna had to be repaired so this caused me to run the wire into the wrist and secure the wire to the ulna instead of going into the ulna

 

I run three pins and card my tails to them. One in the middle and two on the outside. I also pump caulk into it. Well now I pump Power Grab! Look at the left mallard I just posted. It's what I got use to doing

 

IF you use caulk in the wings, it will aid you greatly in getting those tertials in their proper position (as well as the secondaries) as Wildthings is suggesting. I agree with Wildthings. If your humerus is in the correct position, then the problem probably is that you're not taxing that wing skin back toward the body where it originally was. No... it won't go back where it belongs unless you pull/stretch it back there. Caulking will help it stay there. Caulk is also very advantageous for setting the tail. It is also a huge aid under the scapulars. You might be amazed at how much better your scaps will preen and stay put with a bit of caulk under them.
Now.... there's a learning curve to using caulk and, used poorly, it can be a NIGHTMARE, but once you get a handle on it, it can be a real asset.
If you're not using caulk and would like to try it, I highly suggest you get a good DVD on a flying waterfowl that includes using caulk before you try it. You can make a mess of things with caulk in a heartbeat if you don't understand what you're trying to accomplish.
Tip O da Day... You'll laugh, but go to the store and buy a whole chicken. Bring that sucker home and study how those wings work without all those feathers in the way. Some light bulbs should go off. Take pics while you're doin it. Then when you're done, cook it and eat it.!

I THINK the above pic gets credited to Nancy Crocker.
It's amazing! and an awesome learning tool.
In this pose the humerus is away from the body (and correctly so) and notice the tertial gap. Also, notice where every feather attaches to the wing. Notice the stretch in the flight web. Notice everything!
BTW... nice job on the wigeon. I think you have great head/neck/body juncture and position.... not an easy thing starting out.

 

Pulling the tertails back to the elbow like they said. If you are leery of caulk, wrap electrical tape around your elbow joint when you wire, then once your wing is in place, pull the tertials to the correct position and take a t-pin and pin them into the tape. Spencer 2 may chime in on this since he's the one that taught me. Also are you pinning your flight web? That needs to be done once the wing is in place. The humerous isn't tight to the body at the elbow joint..it'll angle off the body at the elbow... How much depends on pose.

I'm gonna say that if you get your tertials in place at the elbow and your humerous is in the correct position and your tertials are still gapped, you need to open up the elbow joint, keeping the humerous in the correct position. Opening the elbow joint will "drop" the tertails toward the body.

Best thing is as suggested. Thaw out a duck and play with it. Hold the wing in different positions and feel where the bones are, how tight the flight web is, where the feathers lay.

 

The tape and T pin is a neat idea!

 

I have that naked duck pic on my wall and it was the one item that made it all come together for me. I was missing something in the feather placement and that cleared it up.

 

The pose has everything to do with it, Kenneth.
The mechanics of a bird flying is astounding and is hard to duplicate correctly without reference.
I rely 100% on reference when I'm mounting birds.
If I don't have a pic in front of me of the exact pose that I'm shootin for, I have one that's close.
Go on Youtube and search Slow motion Birds in Flight UltraSlo. Watch the Canada Goose take off. See the tertial gap during takeoff? A mount pose is a snapshot in time. That's why it's so important to have a reference picture to work from.
You can search birds flying in slow motion and see all kinds of cool flight mechanics. I have to plead ignorance on the "whys" of bird flight mechanics.... way above my pay grade.... lol.

 

We think a bird flaps it's wings up and down.... nothing could be further from the truth...LOL