Birds You should have sent to the Taxidermist???

Carl

Carl

Well-known member
Staff member
We all probably have birds we look back on and say, "damn I shoulda sent that one to the taxidermist".

Here's mine, a beautiful drake mottled duck I killed back in January 2004. Only bird I killed on one of those screaming north wind days that I probably should not have been where I was. He was in the freezer when Hurricane Ivan hit and rotted before the power came back on. "damn I shoulda sent that one to the taxidermist" quicker.
Whats yours?????


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I had a BEAUTIFUL Common GE and had been gifted a BEAUTIFUL Barrows... I took it too a taxidermist... he has moved and disappeared and not taken my calls....

Maybe that is one of the reasons that I am now a taxidermist....
 
A drake green wing teal I took on Thanksgiving day. Latest I ever took a teal in Maine, and the only full plumage drake I ever shot here. I should have taken it to mount, but had a house full of hungry folks who wanted duck appetizers before turkey dinner. The teal was a whole lot better than the two buffleheads we had with it!
 
Carl,
I think you may have seen my past post on this but I will say it again,


As special as that bird was I would have it carved into a decoy by someone you like. Then it goes on your hunts and you relive it every time just looking at it.


I do know for sure, how much of a bummer the freezer gone bad is. Lost a loaded one in my moms house with a buck deer, about 10 geese and the kicker...... about 25 pounds of squid.........
It was off for a month while they were gone before I found out it had been shut down. Not only did I have to buy a new freezer, but I almost had to take down the kitchen it was in!
 
Here is one that I ALMOST DIDN'T take to the taxidermist....But, my wife urged me too.

A Leucistic Black Duck

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Now that is one cool duck!

Did you kill him on the Susqhanna?

Only time I ever spent in Danville was at Geisinger after my sister had a car accident in 1989....
 
Yep...just South of Danville. Oddest looking bird coming in at first light. Looked like it glowed..LOL
 
Cool.
My sister used to work for Woolrich as a designer back in the early 90s.
Spent a 4th with her at Lock Haven, watched fire works over the river.
Fished some small trout streams I lucked into, caught some nice native brookies. It was a fun trip.
 
I have two I wish I had saved. The old squaw is still in my freezer and serves as a painting reference but should be on the wall. He's a HUGE old drake that dwafs the others I have taken and has great plumage.

The other is a bitter sweet memory. It was thanksgiving morning and I was hunting with my grandfather, uncle and cousin on my mom's side. We got into some geese and I killed the largest giant canada goose any of us had ever seen, and they kill quite a few geese. I was considering putting it on the wall but didn't have a lot of interest in a goose mount. When we got back to my grandfathers house, a half a block from my place, my wife was waiting on me. She had the bad news that my grandfather on my dad's side had passed away unexpedidly a few minutes earlier. As I walked home stunned I pulled the breast, tossed it in the fridge, changed clothes and hit the road to be with my dad's family. In hindsight I wish I had that goose on the wall...

Gene
 
Carl,
I think you may have seen my past post on this but I will say it again,


As special as that bird was I would have it carved into a decoy by someone you like. Then it goes on your hunts and you relive it every time just looking at it.


Bob, Now that is a great suggestion.........I agree 100%
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I guess I have three that I "WOULD" have liked to have mounted. The first one was a banded Mexican/mallard hybrid, the second was a banded bull sprig, and the last one is this cinnamon that I shot last January.
Al

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My son and I both shot our first cinnamon teal last weekend here on the lower Columbia (the first we have ever even seen here during the season), I came close to keeping one of them but it had a pellet or two in the bill and the breast feathers were a bit shot up. If the plumage had looked like the one above it would have been a slamdunk.
 
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