Owl feathers - illegal? Anyone ever use them?

[H2O]

This may be a strange post, but I met a person who told me she had lost 2 cats to owls lately. She told me where they roost(?). I asked a few other people and they explained that there are a handful of Great Horned Owls living in huge trees in a particular area.

Are owl feathers illegal? If not, has anyone ever used them for tying? Depending on the answers I get, I may go and scan the area for feathers on the ground. They are in an isolated area in town and there are 4 huge trees that they live in, so it may be easy to pick up a few.

Thanks for your time,


Mike

[halcyon]

Owls are protected under Federal laws protecting raptors. Possession of the feathers is illegal.

[H2O]

After I posted, I searched online to find out that they are not legal and one cannot posess even molted feathers. It seems I better stay away from them.:ray1:

[Loopy]

You might find some interest in this link

http://www.flyforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=12101&highlight=Barn+Owl

An impossible situation in the UK as well!

:beer1:

[Ethan G.]

Somewhere out there, there's a black market for flies tied with seal, polar bear, owl, great blue heron, and all of this illegal stuff. :rofl:

[Ron McNeal]

Forget owls, concentrate on Blue Herons, Eagles and long-haired domestic cats...............

[the_trout_bum]

i pull the dubbing out of my dog's coat and die it to whatever i want. it works perfect.

[pittendrigh]

This may be a strange post, but I met a person who told me she had lost 2 cats to owls lately. She told me where they roost(?). I asked a few other people and they explained that there are a handful of Great Horned Owls living in huge trees in a particular area.

Are owl feathers illegal? If not, has anyone ever used them for tying? Depending on the answers I get, I may go and scan the area for feathers on the ground. They are in an isolated area in town and there are 4 huge trees that they live in, so it may be easy to pick up a few.

Thanks for your time,


Mike

Yes, they are illegal. But what the hell. So are a lot of things.
Selling protected bird feathers is bad in my book, and so would be shooting
an owl to get it's feathers, but not picking up molted feathers. Or harvesting roadkill.

Collect'em and keep quiet about it. The eyebrow lashes make the best small nymph
legs known to man.......I've heard, that is. I wouldn't really know from experience.
Not me.