South Sound Taxidermy, LLC

01/17/2025

The limited Brant season opens in a few places in Washington tomorrow. Here’s one on the bench to kick things off. Good luck out there!

01/04/2025

Almost forgot about this guy. I have a few more coming out real soon. Check out the melanistic feathers in the wings on this big Tom!

12/30/2024

Greenhead on the bench

12/24/2024

Here are pics of habitat work in phases for this young Lesser Scaup, aka Bluebill. The rock is carved from a piece of foam board that I plastered over with drywall joint compound mixed with sand, then painted. The metal grass blades are painted with three different shades of green for depth and realism. After adding the mussels, barnacles, seashell, moss, and moss flocking, I covered everything with resin.

12/21/2024

On the bench

12/19/2024

Lesser Canada in a cornfield

12/18/2024

Fun with resin and real cattails.

12/16/2024

12/15/2024

Forgot to post this one. These panels are big, 48” x 40”.

12/14/2024

Poor bird was crushed. I think we made something of it though.

11/16/2024

This is not the way.

11/13/2024

Here’s something to get behind!

11/05/2024

If a fully mature Canvasback is called the King, what do you call one that’s not quite there?

11/05/2024

Some smelly sea ducks I forgot to post a while back.

11/05/2024

New price list for this season. If you were on my waitlist from last season, I will still honor the 2024 price for you as long as you get it to me by the end of this month.

10/07/2024

Who's excited for the Washington waterfowl opener this weekend? I know I am and thought I'd post a reminder about early season birds and other general things to know before bringing in your trophy.
1. I don't take in waterfowl harvested before November 1st of the current season. Generally, early season birds are still molting from their summer plumage and will be full of pin feathers and have summer feathers still showing. The pin feathers all fall out during the fleshing and washing process and the summer feathers are just not attractive to look at.
2. When you do get that trophy you want mounted, please do NOT use the finisher on your bird and do NOT wring its neck if you need to dispatch it. Do that with any other bird, but not to your trophy that you want to show off for the rest of your life.
3. To dispatch your trophy bird, place it on its back and press down on the chest firmly with your hands until it expires. This typically takes only a few minutes for puddle ducks. Sea ducks, divers, and geese take a long time, so placing your knee on its chest may be necessary because your hands will get tired. Just don't crush it.
4. Bring it to me ASAP. It will be fine in your refrigerator for one day, but any longer has to be frozen. If you choose to freeze it and keep it longer than a few weeks, shove a piece of paper towel down its throat, wrap the head covering the eyes and bill with a we paper towel, wrap the feet in wet paper towels, lay the head naturally over its back or along the side of the body, double bag in freezer bags, and squeeze all the air out of the bags. This will keep your bird from freezer burning and can last years in your freezer like this.
5. Resist the urge to water swat it. Water swatting causes more damage to the wings and head that's just not easy to repair and makes it harder to restore the bird to its full natural beauty.
6. Please do not bring me juvenile birds, molting birds, or birds that have been blown up by a whole blind of shooters. I spent way too much time making juvenile birds look presentable and repairing birds in the last year than I needed to. This adds unnecessary time to my work and severely affects my turnaround time.
7. There are always exceptions though. Some early season birds look great and most damages can be repaired. As always, feel free to message me with any questions. Send me pics of the bird you want mounted if you're not sure and I'll do my best to help.

Enjoy the season and happy hunting!

10/04/2024