Trip to the Taxidermist

In my recent post about the Merlin falcon I mentioned going to the taxidermist who mounted it when it was picked up.

I had never actually been inside a taxidermists shop, or really had all that much exposure to taxidermied animals. At one of the Sportsmans Shows in Toronto a few years back there was a taxidermist displaying his work and it was very impressive. And sure, I’d seen a fish mounted on someone’s wall, or a deers head somewhere, or some stuff in a museum, but that was about it. It’s always struck me as kinda neat, but kinda weird at the same time.

Getting to go and see Jim Jackson’s shop was really neat. Well, the space is definitely not neat. Housekeeping is obviously not Jim’s strong suit. Mounting animals of all shapes and sizes is. And he has lots of them. Too many for his space. There’s stuff leaning against walls, perched on chairs, inside boxes. But what a collection! Great to be able to study animals up close that are often just fleeting glimpses if we’re lucky.

Snapped lots of pictures and thought I’d throw them up here. They weren’t taken very seriously, nothing was really posed properly, or properly lit, the clutter shows. But figured folks might enjoy seeing some of these.

(I’m not going to bother labeling anything. A lot of these I know exactly what they are, but some of the smaller birds I’m not so well versed in. All my bird ID books are in a box in a big pile of boxes, and I can’t be bothered trying to find them right now.)

This turtle is actually a carving that Jim did.