Joyce, i think you can get high quality Starling skins from Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone VERY inexpensive. Googling will get you the phone number. As you may know.....there are two Blue Ribbon Flies in the U.S. Greg Matthews shop in West, and the one here. Origianally the one here was owned by Greg's X-partner in West. But he sold it to the guy who now has it. So if you do google it.....make sure you've got the right shop. Just a thought. i realize you say you've got what you need.....but seems a whole lotta trouble to be skinnin' somethin' that small. Mike Hogue of Badger Creek Fly Tying may also have Starling skins. One other option i've used a few times, is to just keep the dead bird in a plastic bag for 6 months or until his insides just go to dust or whatever, and use the feathers off it from that point on.....you do have to pluck and wash them first though.......just in case there are still any mites left on the thing, and to not be handling dirty feathers. Starlings are so small though. Washin' those little feathers be as much of a pain as skinnin' it, lol. Here's the phone number for the shop in West.....(same area code for every phone in the state of Montana) 406-646-7642 And Badger Creek is 607-347-4946.....Good luck no matter.........
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:34:16 -0700 Subject: [VFB] re: harvesting starling From: [email protected] To: [email protected] I don't have, but wish I did, A. K. Best's book on harvesting skins and furs. If any of you have it, kindly look inside and see how to best skin a starling. My friend gave me three of these and the one was so badly shot up that I was able to save very little of the skin. I am wondering how is best to skin a tin starling so as to keep the skin intact. Do you make the incision down the back of the bird? If upi know the title of the book,kindly email me as well and I'll see if I can pick up one used. Thanks for your help. Joyce _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/177141665/direct/01/ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
