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Starling and others
Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 5:32 am
by Donald Nicolson
This was triggered of by a reference to Starling on a previous page. I thought I'd see how the Starling situation in the UK was these days. It looks like the ban on Starling has gone away. Idiots!!
I had a look on Cookshill http://www.cookshill-flytying.co.uk/gsr.htm and found Golden Plover for sale. Not cheap! but it is there. Quite a few other materials as well. 
Re: Starling and others
Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 10:29 am
by hankaye
Donald, Howdy;
Thanks for the link, didn't have that on. As for skins
Jim S. has some http://www.jimsflyco.com/index.php?p=ca ... &x=68&y=11
at a fair price.
Much better than;
7.00 GBP = 11.4265 USD
British Pound ↔ US Dollar
1 GBP = 1.63236 USD 1 USD = 0.612611 GBP
However the postage would probably balance the scales ...
Why are they "Idiots!!", for removing the ban on Starlings ???
hank
Re: Starling and others
Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 11:40 am
by Ron Eagle Elk
Hank,
I think Donald was talking about the UK ban on harvesting starlings, which most people consider a nuisance bird. Now that the ban on hunting them has been lifted, starling skins are available again.
REE
Re: Starling and others
Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 12:19 pm
by zen leecher
I've shot some while out duck and dove hunting.
Re: Starling and others
Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 2:11 pm
by Mataura mayfly
I think in the UK Starling (like all native songbirds eg: Song Thrush and Blackbird) as Ron states were protected by law. Other countries to which the birds are not native and have either self introduced or liberated by man ( the US and New Zealand), they are fair game.
Many of the old British patterns called for songbird feathers (especially wing quill slips) and those in the UK have been forced to find substitutes, but it now looks like Starling is available to them.
Re: Starling and others
Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 4:35 am
by Donald Nicolson
Thrushes, Blackbirds and most other song birds have been long protected in the UK.
Starlings were not. Many Local Authorities were plagued by thousands of them roosting on bridges, town halls (that really pissed them off) leaving behind lots and lots of bird excrement. Nobody cared how many skins were being sold to fly-dressers. There were millions of them. About eight years ago the population dropped down to a couple of million due to two or three bad summers. Immediately the "powers that be" slapped a country wide ban on starling skins. In a couple of years the starlings fully recovered, as anyone with half a brain would have figured out. I think the ban is still on, but they are not enforcing it.
Enough said. 