Thanks! The widgeon was the first deke I ever entered at a competition in Ocean City, MD. Got DQd when it didn't self right. Also neck is too long and looks alert instead of relaxed. Live and learn.
Kirk

The only competition I ever entered, mine was the first bird out of the tank, not because it didn't right itself, but because it was ugly (and hasn't gotten any prettier sitting on a shelf in my cabin)

A trio of small raptors -- a Northern Saw-Whet Owl, an Eastern Screech Owl and a Kestrel:

those are really nice....charlie

+1
In fact all the dekes in this post are nice. I've always had a liking for the antiques. I've carved a few fakes and I like the challenge involved in aging them. Using period correct nails, shooting them and trying to simulate decades of wear is an art. There are some who have mastered it but of course there methods are closely held secrets.
Kirk

A pair of decorative Green Wing Teal carved by M.G. Hopkins of Halifax, Nova Scotia

There's a-whole-lotta-character in this little character . . . and a-whole-lotta-clatter on the trout stream, too.

Belted Kingfisher hen, carved by the late Tom Beardsley of Fond du Lac, WI

It's now mid-November and ice is forming over our Northcentral Wisconsin lakes. There are now a couple of small flocks of these late migrating Buffleheads that have stopped off on the yet open areas of Lake Wausau to rest on their way thru . . . we'll see them again just after ice out in early Spring.

Styrofoam?.

Not a decoy collector, but 30 years ago I found these and a few others one Spring, after the high water, ice and wind had swept over a Martha's Vineyard pond and receded. The pond's shoreline used to be a remote area, with an old-time duck camp. But, by 1987 that camp had been turned into one of the many Summer cottages that then rimmed the shoreline.

As for the unfinished head: that decoy survived headless; so I carved a new head for it. Had never carved anything before, nor since.

Not collector-grade -- synthetic, beat up and probably shot up. But, they would still have a story to tell, and I like them.

This guy sat on a shelf in my parents house for years, and I recently acquired him through some downsizing of "stuff" as they consider a move to the beach. I never gave the decoy much thought until seeing this thread. I know nothing about it, but a quick Google search turned up some interesting info on Miles Hancock. My Dad grew up on the Eastern Shore, so I'll have to find out how my Grandfather came by this one.

Mike