FLYMPH FORUM

Ray,
Ah, Beautiful Moorhen wings! They are excellent on the hook and in the water! Moorhen has the unusual characteristic of slate grey fibers and a rather dark (almost black) stem. Looks great in service!
Dougsden

I agree with Doug ... moorhen (waterhen) feathers possess qualities that have made them a fly tier/fisherman's staple for literally hundreds of years. Ray's photos show them very nicely.

It is interesting to note that these non-paired wings (size difference is the first cue) illustrate an important feature to be aware of. In the shot showing both wings with the underside facing up, the undercoverts on the left wing have white tips, while those on the right wing are uniformly grey. Based on information garnered from Robert Smith's blog, the white tipped feathers indicate a juvenile bird, while the solid grey feathers on the other wing are those of an adult. According to Robert, the feathers from an adult bird are the ones most desired for North Country patterns that call for waterhen undercoverts.

I use moorhen for small black stone and caddis patterns. If you order from Cookshill you can specify what type of bird you want, young or old. There are a couple of patterns that call for young red grouse and he can ship those to you. Steve lists and posts photo's on FB if anyone is interested. He often gets limited supplies of different materials which are not on his web site.

I was able to get some moorhen wings by putting a search on eBay and also using Google. You have to be quick though because they go fast. Try using the term waterhen as well.

Thanks guys, for the additional comments. All of your posts are excellent feedback and provides helpful advice for current availability (scarce) and possible substitutions. I think this is exactly the sort of discussion that John was hoping to see, when setting up the "Soft Hackle Materials" subsection of the forum a couple months ago.

Thank you for the contributions. I've learned a few things. I didn't realize that my moorhen/waterhen wings wings were likely from two different aged birds. Neat.

Floating in the bay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pair-Dried-W ... :rk:3:pf:0

dd

I understand your question, John. You would need the same lighting and to show both pairs the same way to be more able to answer it. The brownish tinge on the upper side is said to be special to the moorhen. Some tiers, like Paul Procter, prefer to use the marginal (upper) covert due to the brown olive tinge for the Waterhen bloa.

http://paulprocter.blogspot.com/



Photo comes from his blog.

There were a couple more wings in Veniard packages when I looked...

dd

The Waterhen Bloah on the right was tied with the outer covert feather the left with an inner covert. The outer covert is darker and much easier to wind.

Tom

Stefan (dd) and Tom (upstatetrout) - Thank you for the additions. Great reference info.

The moorhen (waterhen) wings I own have a distinct olive-grey cast to them on the upper side. I photographed the wings outdoors, in natural sunlight but in a shaded area. The ebay photo looks to be an indoor photo, under artificial lighting. Depending on the camera settings, the light source can skew the color perception.

Someday I'd like to retake many of these photos, with a color reference card to better capture true color. I'd need to reshoot the images in RAW, then do some post processing to give the best color representation and capture the subtle differences in tone.

Sorry to go off on a tangent. Photography and color capture, can be a whole passion unto itself. Tons to learn, for photographic novices like me. All part of the fun.

Anyway, back to discussion of moorhen (waterhen) feathers...