# A blue for the wall



## Traxion (Apr 16, 2004)

Shot this nice white bellied blue this last week in SD. He is in really good shape minus the blood on the breast but the taxidermist should be able to take care of that. I was excited to see him, I have wanted one for the wall!


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## carp_killer (Nov 24, 2006)

beutiful bird


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## Shu (Oct 21, 2003)

sweet bird!


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## maryk (Feb 9, 2009)

very nice!!!


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## jgat (Oct 27, 2006)

Nice bird Trax!


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## goosebusters (Jan 12, 2006)

Gorgeous. Be honest, did you know it was a blue when you shot it?


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## Traxion (Apr 16, 2004)

No I did not know he was a blue. He came in from the side separate from a bunch of birds way above me. He made one pass at about 100 yds., circled and came straight down. I didn't pay too much attention to him when he made the first pass, then when he came in I thought he was a juvy snow, all white belly with darker wings. It was early too so that didn't help. Not until I picked him up did I realize what I had. Made the day for me though!


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## Loos802 (Oct 8, 2007)

Nice blue!!!!


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## collar boy (Apr 5, 2008)

Very nice!! Good one to have on the wall!! Well done!


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## allgamehunter (Jan 15, 2006)

That's a really unique looking blue. Most the ones I've shot have had a darker breast with just a white head but that's a really cool looking bird. Hope I get one like that this year.


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

Nice bird indeed.


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## Sask hunter (Sep 11, 2008)

I have never seen a blue like that. Nice bird and should look great on the wall. Any ideas on the pose yet?


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## Traxion (Apr 16, 2004)

No pose yet I am going to do some searching to see what will work best. Want to showcase the white belly but still get some of his back to show.


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## Rick Acker (Sep 26, 2002)

dandy, I would do a front view pose to show off that belly! :beer:


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## Save Hens (Mar 15, 2008)

its a beauty


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## SDwaterfowler (Mar 2, 2006)

Nice! We have put 2 similar blues on the ground this year. Must be time to buy a lotto ticket. Let us know what pose you decide to go with. I'm still trying to figure out which one I'm going with.


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## take'em down (Jan 8, 2009)

Nice blue! I need one for the wall too


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## lookin4theX (Mar 3, 2009)

Sweet blue. I am still waiting for a nice bird for the wall. Its tough finding nice looking birds when all we do is focus on finding juvies to hunt. :beer:


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## sx2hunter (Feb 18, 2009)

pic wen he is laying on his belly with his back up is nice u can see the wrinkles in his neck, must be an older one i gota blue on my wall to not as white as the one but ne way nice bird!


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## brobones (Mar 10, 2004)

That is a great looking blue Congrads. Here is one I got mounted back in 07
Double banded interphase. $50 reward went to the taxidermist bill.

















The lighting is very poor in my basement and doesn't really do the bird justice. It also is the first bird my golden brought back to hand.


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## snow123geese (Feb 3, 2008)

Very nice bird. Should look good on the wall!


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## TINGER (Mar 23, 2008)

really nice looking mount


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## Whistler (Feb 28, 2009)

Just a little fyi, both of those are snow/blue cross. Just like a black/mallard. Absolutely beautiful and definately worthy of the wall!!


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## goosebusters (Jan 12, 2006)

Whistler said:


> Just a little fyi, both of those are snow/blue cross. Just like a black/mallard. Absolutely beautiful and definately worthy of the wall!!


not really though, blacks and mallards are different species.


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## hammerhead (Dec 22, 2004)

That is one beautiful bird Trax.


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## teamducker (Mar 19, 2009)

So does that make both of those a hybrid than??....Snow/blue cross


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## cranebuster (Nov 2, 2004)

technically any blue goose with white on its belly is a hybrid, but not really a hybrid since a hybrid is two different species mating. It's more like when you get yellow, black or chocolate labs out of a black mother, they are just color phases of the same species. The blue is the dominant color, so it will eventually phase out the white color. A snow goose (blue or white) will pic a mate of the same color as its parents were, so if it had a blue mom and white dad, it will randomly select its mates color, which leads to more hybrids, which have offspring that will also hybridize. They did studys where they painted mom and dad pink before the eggs hatched, and when those geese grew up, they would select a pink mate out of a group of potential mates. This also explains the rarity of a blue phased ross, which is essentially a blue/ross hybrid. Its rare because ross geese will always attempt to mate with a white counterpart, with blue being a very very last resort. BUT, the offspring from this cross, so called blue phase ross's will be very apt to mate with either color, thus causing the numbers to increase exponentially. Just has the number of white bellied blues like the one pictured has increased considerably in the last 30 years so will the number of "blue phased ross's". I did a thesis paper on this in undergrad, so I put an @ssload of research into the subject. I shot a BPR last spring, one of the neatest looking little birds I've ever seen, it had a lot of white on it, attributing to the fact that one of its parents was pure white. One other thing you will notice is the varying degree of black on the wing tips of snows, a "true" snow will have only 5 black primaries, which is very rare, most snows will have black primaries and some varying amount of black on their secondaries and may or may not have a black allula (the little feather on their "knuckle"), so you can essentially tell how much "blue" is in the snows you shoot just as you can tell how much snow is in the blues you shoot. Canada's dont hold a candle to that!!! And they're dumb.. and you can only shoot 3!!!


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