Feather & Down Taxidermy

Feather & Down Taxidermy Professional bird taxidermy services. Over 30 years experience.

This is a Harris Hawk ... not a native species to this area, it was used as a hunting hawk and died naturally. It is in...
01/19/2025

This is a Harris Hawk ... not a native species to this area, it was used as a hunting hawk and died naturally. It is in the same category of hawk as our Red-Tailed hawks and is close in size as well.

Here is a young drake shoveler done to go into a small glass case.
01/17/2025

Here is a young drake shoveler done to go into a small glass case.

01/08/2025

I have a request here ... PLEASE ... do not vacuum seal birds for taxidermy purposes. The texturing on the inside of the bag will imprint on the feathers, bill and feet and there is a good chance it will not come out. In addition, the tightness of the bag may bend or crease the shafts of feathers, damaging them to the point where they will not fluff ... but the imprint of the texture on the long or iridescent feathers are a real problem. For some reason this has been common this year with a number of clients vacuum sealing their birds, to the point where I have had to turn away a number of them due to damage. Plastic is the right way to freeze birds for taxidermy, and a zip lock is best as long as the bag is large enough to fit the tail without damage, and squeeze out alot of the air, but not so tight as to break or bend the shafts of the feathers. I realize this is a little late as the season is ending, but maybe some will remember this for next years birds.

This is something a little hard to find ... it is a Redhead/Canvasback hybrid taken in Ontario.
12/01/2024

This is something a little hard to find ... it is a Redhead/Canvasback hybrid taken in Ontario.

A drake canvasback in a head upright position ... a more alert head positioning was requested by the client, so I also p...
12/01/2024

A drake canvasback in a head upright position ... a more alert head positioning was requested by the client, so I also put the bird in stride like a walking position ... this gives more meaning to the head being held high as they often lift some when they walk.

A greater scaup (bluebill) finished up recently ready to head back.
11/29/2024

A greater scaup (bluebill) finished up recently ready to head back.

Here is a pair of pintail drakes finished up and ready to return.
11/28/2024

Here is a pair of pintail drakes finished up and ready to return.

Here is a pair of greater bluebill (Scaup) finished up recently.
10/17/2024

Here is a pair of greater bluebill (Scaup) finished up recently.

Thought I would bump this back to the top for this time of season ... this shows a good way to freeze the ducks to limit...
10/06/2024

Thought I would bump this back to the top for this time of season ... this shows a good way to freeze the ducks to limit any damage and preserve as long as possible.

A couple nights ago I did a sunset hunt, no shots at ducks, but as usual, there always seems to be some geese around. T...
10/04/2024

A couple nights ago I did a sunset hunt, no shots at ducks, but as usual, there always seems to be some geese around. This was a first time for me ... got myself a hybrid goose, I have mounted a few, but none of my own ... I sent a pic or two to Ben Pierce and his opinion it is a Canada X Greylag hybrid ... I expect the big orange feet, oversized skull and bill and multicoloured bill show it is a hybrid and not a piebald. I skinned it the next day to mount for myself at a later date (will have to cast the bill for it), and got a stark reminder of why I am not taking in larger geese at the moment ... my hands and mid back are quite sore today, the length of time to skin and especially flesh these beasts have become more difficult as I age. The most impressive thing (to myself anyway) was that I identified it as a likely hybrid out of a group of 4 geese, at a range limit to shoot at 25 minutes after sunset while they flew through the tree line of across the cove ... the fact that I had the wherewithal to pick out that extra white in the head shows that my distance vision is not deteriorating near as fast as my hand joints.

10/04/2024

Hello all! If anyone has been trying to get ahold of my by phone in the last couple weeks and not got a pick up, my phone has been out most of the time due to the incompetence of Bell Canada ... working on getting it fixed, but it will not be until next week at the earliest ... so if anyone wants to get hold of me or knows someone who has called but not got through, feel free to contact me here, I still have internet obviously. Thanks, Steve Dingman.

Here is a drake bufflehead finished up and headed home.
10/01/2024

Here is a drake bufflehead finished up and headed home.

Here are two mounts for the same client ... a laying down drake redhead, and a swimming drake goldeneye. For backings f...
10/01/2024

Here are two mounts for the same client ... a laying down drake redhead, and a swimming drake goldeneye. For backings for these wall mounts, I happened to have two red cedar cookies that came from the same log, likely consecutive, so they match each other well for the client.

Thought I would bring this back to the top to try to help with what to look for on drake wood ducks.
09/29/2024

Thought I would bring this back to the top to try to help with what to look for on drake wood ducks.

Here is a little screech owl finished up. This one had severe damage from the car accident it was involved in ... one e...
09/03/2024

Here is a little screech owl finished up. This one had severe damage from the car accident it was involved in ... one eye socket was obliterated, several holes in awkward locations in the head, the guts were blown out the butt hole, and the skin was torn around one leg almost all the way ... made it tough to work on and needing lots of repair. The client is a carver looking to use it for a competition carving coming up, so I wanted to do my best to repair it and get it mounted, but it did reinforce the reasons why at this time I have not been taking in raptors until I can get more caught up than I presently am ... the damages are often significant on them since most are killed by cars.

A drake gadwall finished up ready to head home.
08/09/2024

A drake gadwall finished up ready to head home.

Here is a new one for me ... this old squaw had a deformity I have not seen before ... one of the long centre tail feath...
08/08/2024

Here is a new one for me ... this old squaw had a deformity I have not seen before ... one of the long centre tail feathers grew in upside-down. When I looked at it frozen and thawed out, I figured it was shot damage that hit the shaft or root of the feather and broke it ... but when I got the bird inside-out, I could see there was no damage at all to the connective tissue holding the tail feathers together, and no damage to the shaft of the feather outside the skin ... so the feather must have grown in this way, and is completely upside-down.. The second feather on that side of the tail was also missing, but not due to shot damage ... so I suspect there was damage in the past that caused the growth follicle for the second feather to be missing, and also caused the feather next to it to grow in deformed.

Here is a combo redhead/canvasback mount ... the redhead was well plumed, but the canvasback is one of those birds that ...
06/19/2024

Here is a combo redhead/canvasback mount ... the redhead was well plumed, but the canvasback is one of those birds that are a taxidermist nightmare ... the can was in full molt, which makes it quite difficult to hold feathers in the skin and to get it to fluff (not to mention one side of the bird took alot of shot damage) ... as a taxidermist, we do what we can to hide any deficiencies or damage.

Address

RR#4
Picton, ON
K0K2T0

Telephone

+16134767981

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