Reuven I'm a closet fanatic. I tie everything. The only thing I haven't tied so far is realistics but I signed up for a realistic class at Somerset next weekend. I'm going to take Steve Thornton's class this year. It's a good start. I have a lot of the more common "exotic" birds but I will most likely stay with Classic Salmon flies and not venture into artistic flies. So I really don't pursue some of the more obscure birds. You can get crazy collecting them and never use them. A good example is this collector that is now trying to sell 11 typed pages of birds and recover his investment. It's addictive.... be careful. :0) So for now I'm just obtaining feathers that are used in the Classics. I pick up anything that is a good substitute also. I don't have the funds to get so crazy trying to get Indian crow and Chatterer so I try to find the very best natural substitutes I can. If it's a common bird... all the better. I've had some very generous friends help me get feathers I need to use for matching substitutes to. Three of them will be at this show so I'm sure they can give Don O more insight into Penguins or who to contact. Phil Castleman is an attorney and imports many exotic birds. He is a very good source to contact for understanding the laws. He's one of the few people I know though that understands them. In my limited experience (3 1/2 yrs) of tying these flies I have to say I've seen more than a few illegal feathers being sold so the buyer really has to beware here. You really have to educate yourself and that isn't easy. These laws are tough to read and they change pretty often as different species are added and taken off. If you have to dig this hard to find something, that really is pretty common and not what I would call endangered, it raises a red flag to me. JMHO Unfortunately customs has been known to confiscate things that are legal also because they don't always know what they're doing. It is the government after all. ;0) That adds another problem with ordering from overseas. Warm Regards, Deb
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Reuven Segal Sent: Monday, November 14, 2005 8:02 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [VFB] birdy love Deb: Since when did needing a material interfere with collecting it "just in case" you should one day need it?? What sort of fly tier are you??? R
