The Eider is hunted in New Hampshire on the coast along with other sea ducks, bag limit 4 per day and you can possess a total of 8. It can also be found inland, we have lots of marsh areas. My neighbor who occasionally takes me duck hunting has seen them twice. I looked at the information on duck and water fowl counts in the state and they are mid range for numbers with the Canada goose and mallard in top spot for overall numbers.
I guess to really spot one you'd have to sit around on a very cold windy day in a marsh, not fun! Peggy On Dec 3, 2007 7:41 AM, Deborah Duran <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > An outside influence got me digging through my more unusual feathers this > weekend to inspire me into a personal challenge and I found a bag of Eider > feathers a friend had sent me from Denmark. They are a really nice sub > for smaller spey flies or a classic salmon fly pattern that comes to mind> > They probably wouldn't work on the longer/larger wall hangings we're so > fond of today. > > I'm not familiar with an Eider duck???? Is that a common duck? Since > my feathers came from an overseas friend I wasn't sure if they were > available here. > > I've never seen them in a fly shop. All you duck hunters out there….. > Where do these come from and are they common here? I suppose I could google > them but I thought I would let some experienced duck hunters chime in > here. I thought it might be more interesting to hear what they have to > say. > > Pete, you're right the Ostrich and Rhea feathers seem a little over the > edge to me also. Unless you're goal is to tie an artistic modern version in > "spey style". > > Deb > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > *From:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > *On Behalf Of *Peter Gramp > *Sent:* Monday, December 03, 2007 6:41 AM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: [VFB] Spey Hackle? > > > > Mark- > I apologize for misplacing your address, but if you send your snail-mail > address to me off-list, I can show you what "spey hackle" is (at least a > modern version; in the truest fashion, the coque from a special breed of > roosters around River Spey, Scotland is what was used... but those birds are > thought extinct. We have decent 'modernizations' these days, though, as > you'll soon see :) ) > > The best description I've heard is "Immagine a web-less Coque > Rooster-tail feather" and one of the most confusing, yet descriptive phrases > is "take an entire Ostrich Herl plume, strip the barbs from the secondary > flues, leaving the flues as if hackle barbs, then picture a thread-thin > quill, and it's a decent representation"... but all examples I have contain > a far higher "barb count" than that second mental- picture... You'll see > when I send some examples. :) It used to be that Blue Heron was a > substitute, but that's illegal to use these days. The best substitute I've > seen these days (that is legal) is Eider Duck flank. Another common feather > is Blue- Eared Pheasant, which is actually shorter in quill- length and has > 'stringier' barbs than the pictures of older/ "original" hackle I have... > which really isn't original stuff, but just an artist's rendition! heheheh- > go figure. Regardless, there's several different examples out there, and > I'd love to send some if you'd like. > > Tight wraps, > Pete Gramp > pete dot gramp at gmail dot com > > On Nov 26, 2007 3:01 PM, Mark Beresford II <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > wrote: > > maybe a stupipd question, but "Spey Hackle"... > > Spey Casting....Spey Hackle?? > > > > what the hecks spey hackle?? lol, thanks! > > > > mark. > ------------------------------ > > Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your > homepage.<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51438/*http:/www.yahoo.com/r/hs> > > > -- Peggy Brenner
