I'm not a duck hunter, and I don't even play one on TV... but... >From what my memory recalls (admittedly HIGHLY fallible!), Eider duck is a Sea duck, typically in the northern coasts of Europe, though they have been intentionally "set up" off the south-eastern coast of Massachusetts and at "Land's End," Maine.
The males are black and white, typically with a "W-like" pattern of white on their back, with a green nape of the neck, while females are mostly brown with minimal white and black on the flanks. Both genders have a very identifiable/ characteristic near-perfect wedge-shaped head, as a flat surface from crown-of-the-head to point-of-the-bill and another flat surface from crown-of-head to base-of-back-of-neck. Their primary food source is mollusks, so they were once thought of as a possible "treatment" to the Zebra Mussel problems in the great lakes. [Personal opinion: thank goodness that didn't happen, as the birds multiply like Sea Gulls and get to be "rats with wings"... plus, adding a second non-native species to "treat" a first non-native species seems wrong to me. Again, personal opinion, feel free to disagree] In any event, they're most common in Northern Brittain and the west coast of Scotland, particularly the Northumberland coast. Again, the mollusks as a primary food source keep them close to the shore. They do dive for food, an awesome sight if you ever get to see it in person - I did see this along the Northumberland coast back in '04, and it was quite a sight! Just my 2 cents worth, (also all from memory, so I may be way off on this), Pete 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> > > >
