Eep, no posts since October last year - well I've mostly been concentrating on university and also haven't really been out in the wilds a whole lot over winter. We did manage a few walks to Mugdock Country park, Killiecrankie and Callender as well as a fruitful trip to
Trearne Quarry in Ayrshire where we came back with a few quality brachiopod and coral fossils!
Our Carboniferous haul mostly included Productids, rugose corals and tabulate corals, and we also got some photos of bryozoan mats and possible echinoderm spines.
I also finally got around to doing some taxidermy on a female grey squirrel I picked up off the side of the road last year (don't panic, its been in freezer!). I actually started it a couple of months ago, it took me most of the day just to skin it, and then I got it back out again the other day to finish. It really shouldn't be taking two days to taxidermy a squirrel >.<
I've only used a pre-made foam body form once in my work so far (on Douglas the stoat), I much prefer the woodwool wrapping method, that way you can hold the form up to the actual carcass and get a much better feel for the measurements and ability to change things before it's too late. It also gives you freedom over the final pose, you can muck about and tweak it several times before you leave it to dry. ...And it's a pretty traditional old school method, I've seen some commercial taxidermists slag it off and argue that it takes too long and isn't economical, but I don't think it makes any difference time wise on small mammals or birds to be honest. I was originally going to mount it on a piece of wood but we're running out of shelfspace so for a change I've left it free standing.
Some people were wondering about the pins liberally stuck into poor Nutkin, thinking it was some weird voodoo acupuncture thing - they're there to keep the eyelids, mouth, ears and toes in place while the skin dries over the course of a week or so. As the skin dries it tightens a bit and so things that aren't stuck down tend to move around!
It's not perfect, one of the eyes is more pushed in than the other but you only really notice when you look head on. The chest is a bit too far forward and there are a few small annoying bald patches which im asssuming are a result of it being it by a car rather than the fur slipping during skinning (as I didn't see any clumps come out when i was doing it!). Overall I'm quite pleased with how she's been drying.
Next on the list is a half-finished stoat (yes another one) which I'm planning to mount on a piece of wood with a vole in it's mouth :)
