I carved my first greenwing decoys at the same time I carved my first cans from a sheet of 4" black decoy cork. They were pretty crude, but I shot a lot of teal over them in Utah. A few years back I decided I needed to upgrade my teal spread.

I did the preening hen and the conventional drake in 2007, and added the feeding drake and lowhead hen in 2010. Although we see greenwings every year on Thief Lake, we don't see big numbers unless the water on the marsh is lower than normal. When that occurs, it's not unusual to get into some colored up birds just before ice-up.

These decoys are all self-righting, with hollow cedar bodies, basswood heads, and weighted oak keels. All are painted in acrylics.

My first venture into making my own decoys was in grad school when I took payment for some landscaping work in the form of a sheet of black decoy cork. With that one sheet of cork I made three can blocks and nine greenwings. That was in 1983, and I'm still hunting over those can blocks 33 seasons later. This bird came a little bit later in the process. Like a lot of decoy carvers, I have a soft spot for cans.

Like a lot of my current decoys, this bird is hollow and self-righting. The body is northern white cedar, the head is basswood, and the keel is oak, painted in acrylics. From the patina of mud you can see that this bird already has a few seasons under his belt, and has been hunted over since 2010.

I like low headed, contented birds for my decoy spreads, and I have some low head cans. They are one of the few species that have a particularly long neck, and a more alert pose doesn't necessarily signal danger. The taller decoys show up from further away.

Mallard decoys are the backbone of a dabbler spread almost anywhere you go, and Thief Lake is no exception. I have some cork bodied birds in the spread that I've hunted over for 31 seasons now.

These birds, like most of my decoys, are self-righting, have hollow cedar bodies and basswood heads. This particular drake has been hunted over for six or seven seasons now, and has a body of western red cedar, made from old recycled bridge timbers that a friend was able to salvage. 

The hen is one that I just finished - the photo shoot was her first time on the water. She has a body of northern white cedar.

When it comes to carving birds for hunting, I like carving contented birds. I think relaxed looking decoys are reassuring to birds looking at a decoy spread. A drake wigeon was a natural for this kind of treatment - there are lots of photos on the internet of colored up, tucked head drake wigeon, so I had to carve one. We get a lot of wigeon on Thief Lake, and they are a good addition to any spread - even one that's primarily divers, since wigeon will often sit with divers.

You can tell from the mud that this bird has already spent a couple of seasons in the decoy bag and on the marsh. It's a pretty standard treatment of a hollow, self-righting northern white cedar body, basswood head and weighted oak keel.  He's painted in acrylics.

We get a lot of pintail on Thief Lake, and a few pintail decoys are a valuable part of a dabbler spread here. While I like a decoy spread where low head, contented birds predominate, pintails are one species where I like a little bit taller head. On drakes, especially, I like that tall triangle of white - I think it's visible from a ways away and attracts attention to a decoy spread.

Pintails are tall, slender elegant birds.  A preening hen seemed like a good way to show off her subtle colors.

Both birds are self-righting, have hollow northern white cedar bodies, basswood heads and weighted oak keels. They are painted in acrylics, and have been a part of the decoy spread for over five years. The tail feathers or "pins" on drake pintails are always a challenge - trying to imitate those long central tail feathers without being too fragile.  In this case I inletted a piece of maple into the back of the block, and carved there feathers from that. I probably shouldn't worry about that here, since birds are rarely that far along in the molt.

We get a lot of redheads here at Thief Lake, particularly early in the season. They aren't the wariest of ducks, but I like having redhead blocks in the spread. They're big, tasty ducks that decoy well. 

I've been hunting this bird since 2009 - you can tell from the mud.  He's self-righting, in spite of the high head, and made of northern white cedar with a basswood head and weighted oak keel, painted in acrylics.

In a lot of years, ringnecks are number one birds in the bag at Thief Lake, and we shoot a lot of them. I carved my first ringneck decoys in 1997, the year after we moved to Minnesota.  They were hollow basswood, and poorly sealed, and they cracked. I salvaged some of the heads and put them on cedar bodies and still hunt with them.

This is a newer generation of ringer decoy, made from hollow northern white cedar with a basswood head and weighted oak keel. This bird is in a pose that I like for ringers - the turned head looking over your shoulder while swimming away look.  This was this decoy's first season in the spread, and we did well on ringnecks this year.

Lesser scaup (or bluebill) decoys are a Thief Lake standard. They comprise the bulk of most diver spreads on the lake. I have a couple of bags of carved bluebills I hunt over when the 'bills are in.

This particular bird is self-righting, hollow northern white cedar with a basswood head and a weighted oak keel.  This one hasn't been hunted over yet, since it was carved as a retirement present for one of the guys here at Thief Lake.

Although Thief Lake is known as a bluebill (lesser scaup) stopover, we do get greater scaup. They are most prevalent late in the fall just before ice-up (and as early migrants in the spring). They are also fairly common on Lake of the Woods. Greaters are larger overall, and tend to have more rounded heads compared to the more angular heads on lessers. Although iridescence is a structural component of color, in my experience you are more likely to see greenish iridescence on greaters and purple on lessers.

I carved this pair of greaters for late season diver shoots on Thief Lake, and for layout shooting on Lake of the Woods. Both birds are self-righting, with hollow northern white cedar bodies, basswood heads, and weighted oak keels. Painting was done with acrylics.

My son Ben has gotten into pike spearing and carving the spearing decoys to go with those pursuits. He has enjoyed making them, and challenged me to come up with one to try out. I chose a tullibee or cisco decoy since they are an important food resource for northerns on Lake of the Woods.

This decoy is carved from northern white cedar, with fins cut from copper sheet. Painting was done with acrylics, and it has a topcoat of Envirotex. I followed some weighting instructions when pouring lead for internal weights to get the balance right.  When jigged, the decoy swims in a 5-6' diameter right hand circle.  No northerns came in to the decoy the one afternoon I tried it.   

When we lived in Utah we had lots of gadwall, but I didn't care for the way they tasted (I had hunted birds that were on an algae diet), and so I didn't shoot them or hunt for them. After being in Minnesota for a year or two, my son Ben shot a gadwall, and it tasted just fine. We had discovered that birds on a pondweed diet were alright.

When I took over aerial waterfowl surveys here, I noticed that when significant rafts of bluebills showed up in mid-October, there would often be small pods of gadwalls sitting out in the open water among the bluebill flocks. The big colored up drakes with their silvery tertials looked pretty sharp, and I decided I had to carve a gadwall rig.

This was one of the few times that I carved an entire rig of decoys at one time, rather than adding to the rig a bird at a time. These birds were done in 2009, and have bodies of western red cedar, rather than my more typical northern white cedar. All birds are self righting, hollow, and have heads of basswood with weighted oak keels. Painting was done in acrylics. 

I shot my first (and only) white-winged scoter while layout hunting in 20' of water on Lake Michigan. While the hunting was fun, I wasn't too impressed with the scoter as table fare. We often see scoters late in the season, but they've always gotten a free ride. I carved this bird more as a confidence decoy for late season diver shoots than anything else. Its large size and dark colors stand out at a distance.

This bird is self-righting, hollow and has a body of northern white cedar. The head is basswood, the keel is weighted oak and he's painted with acrylics.

Black ducks are a regular visitor to Thief Lake, particularly in late season. Both of these examples are hollow white cedar with basswood heads painted in acrylics. The birds are self-righting.

The preener was carved for The Gathering 2019, a fish and duck decoy competition in Perham, Minnesota.

The high headed black duck is a memorial decoy carved for our lab Bailey. It contains some of her ashes so she can continue to hunt with us.

Although they nest in the Thief Lake area, hoodies are seen in the biggest numbers in the days preceding freeze-up. With their diet of fish, mergansers aren’t known for their fine table qualities, but with their bold colors they make great confidence decoys. This one is self-righting hollow northern white cedar, with a basswood head, painted in acrylics.

This loon decoy is an experiment. It was carved for my son’s in-laws who have a lake place in northern Minnesota. They have a problem with Canada geese using the lawn adjacent to their dock, and they’d like to encourage the geese to go elsewhere. There is some thought that geese and loons don’t get along well, and that floating a loon decoy near their dock may dissuade the geese from using the area. We’ll see if this works - if not it’ll ride the mantle.

The decoy is made from northern white cedar (including the head) painted in acrylics and has a weighted keel.

This decoy was carved to compete in a specific category at The Gathering - a fish and duck decoy carving competition in Perham, Minnesota in April of 2022. The decoy was to imitate a Premier grade or “snakey-head” mallard decoy.

The decoy is carved from northern white cedar and painted in acrylics. The decoy has undergone extensive weathering to make it look old including being shot from a distance with a shotgun to simulate use. The decoy took second place in the competition.

This decoy was carved for a decoy carving competition in Perham, Minnesota in spring of 2022. The category was an open drake mallard. The decoy’s head is carved from basswood and the body from northern white cedar. Painting was done with acrylics and the bird is hollow and self righting. This decoy took second place in the category.

This decoy was carved for a decoy carving competition in Perham, Minnesota in spring of 2023. The category was a drake bluebill (lesser scaup). The bird is carved with a basswood head and hollow cedar body painted in acrylics. The bird is self-righting and took first place in the category.

This decoy was carved for a decoy competition in Perham, Minnesota in the spring of 2023. The category was the Lake of the Woods Challenge and specified a working drake goldeneye decoy. This entry was carved with a basswood head and cedar body and is painted in acrylics. The decoy’s keel is weighted and self rights. This bird took first place in the category. The sponsor of the category has a family tradition of hunting Four Mile Bay on Lake of the Woods with his family every October, and this decoy was going hunting with them!