Prairie Flight and Fur Taxidermy

A close up of one of the cool Long-tails!

January’s birds are Long-tailed ducks (aka Old Squaws) that came from the east coast What cool little ducks, and what an awesome opportunity for this prairie girl! It’s not going to be too often I’ll be able work on birds like these so I am very grateful for the opportunity.

The first of a few beavers finished and ready to ship. This one is sold.

Making our way through more 2020 mule deer!

One more really nice moose all finished up today as well and ready to head home.

And so it begins for the 2020 season! The first of a number of nice moose that have come in. Antler mounts are awesome if you don’t want to potentially wait many months for the beetles and they look nice

Must’ve been able to tell I wasn’t hunting him lol. I didn’t exactly hide and he just kept stopping to check me out.

Well I sealed the deal on my 2020 whitetail! Looked at him for a while just to make sure the buck fever wasn’t swaying my decision and finally decided to pull the trigger.

I had a request again this year to share some photos on what a fully fleshed skull should look like. The bugs will eat lots but the more we can get off ahead of time the faster they finish. More flesh can rot too quickly and cause a big mess or get dried on really bad and then the bugs struggle. This is for those of you wanting to flesh your animals yourself and if you have any questions at all feel free to send me a message and pictures. ... Tools: I personally prefer to use a havalon knife or scalpel, a hemostat for gripping that slipper flesh, pliers sometimes for the tongue bones and the hide around the base of the antlers and we made a simple tool with wire for the brain. Smash it up and scoop it out then blast some water in with your hose to get any bits out. Eyes out...and ALL the fat that surrounds them. There’s lots of fat in the eye sockets. Notice in one photo that there is a spot bings the eyes and below the antler that I have cleaned out. There is lots of fat and flesh in there that has to some out. Top pallet: on the roof of the mouth there’s a very fleshy piece that should come out too. Bottom jaw off even if you want to keep it. Nose: trim off what you are comfortable doing without cutting into the nasal bones. I will trim excess after and can show you for next time if you like. The main thing is to get as much flesh and fat off as possible. A fully fleshed moose takes the bugs about a week so the more that’s left on the longer it takes. Once it’s fleshed, wash it good and wrap it in a garbage bag. This keeps everything from drying right out. Freeze as soon as you can if possible or get it to me!

Don’t forget to get entered! This year we are doing gift certificates so you can put it towards anything you like rather than just deer. The big draw is the equivalent of a free deer/antelope euro. My friend who makes all our boards is also donating a board of your choice to the main winner. I also realized I wrote the order of the draws wrong We will draw for the big prize first so everybody has a chance at it followed by the other two. I will make a new poster for that at some point.

Saturday in the shop...more heads coming in, skinning to be done and a bit more work on this sandhill crane

A couple moose shoulder blades from a previous season finally cleaned up and ready for them to take along this season.

There are some many good ones but here’s my favourite shot from a crazy foggy morning as my boys quietly walked down the trail to see if they could spy the grouse that flew up.

Who’s out doing some grouse hunting this year? We got to spend a few days in northern SK hunting and fishing. Bird numbers for sure seem to be down but we had fun. This photo was taken just as the fog was burning off.