Will Kirkpatrick's Decoy Shop

Original Carvings by Will

Every carving is carved and painted by hand.

  1. Primitive Preener - 9" long, distressed patina.$90.00 (Item #3) Put bird in bag
    Pragmatic old-time decoy carvers could rarely justify the extra time required to make decoys in recurved or twisted shapes. Carving and finishing inside curves is fussy work. The few preeners that were made are especially prized by collectors. Not a reproduction, this exquisite little yellowlegs is Will's original work.
  2. Nantucket Golden-Back Plover - 10" long, distressed patina. $80.00 (Item 11) DISCONTINUED
    Hardy southbound golden-backs flew over open ocean to South America! Easterly winds pitched large flocks onto outlying islands for eager hunters. Hence, most of the shorebird decoys made on Nantucket were golden plovers. Will made this classic "rocking" golden plover gunning decoy from one he saw at an auction years ago.

  1. Killdeer - 8-1/2" long, carved wings, glass eyes, lightly distressed patina. $75.00 (Item #26) DISCONTINUED
    Named for its shrill call, the killdeer is a well-known visitor to newly ploughed or mown fields, golf courses, mud flats, and shore habitats. When its nest is threatened, the hen leads intruders away with a convincing broken wing act. Graceful, saucy, perky, and plucky! Will has captured these traits, using the simple tools and techniques of the old decoy makers.
  2. Audubon Yellowlegs - 4-1/2" long, glass eyes, carved hardwood bill, stippled paint, distressed patina. $110.00 (Item #81) DISCONTINUED
    To our knowledge, James Audubon did not use or make decoys, but decoys of his design were made by carvers throughout the country who used his prints as a guide. Will's shorebird is his interpretation of a yellowlegs in this graceful pose featured in an Audubon print.
  3. Great Blue Heron - 21" long, about 30" tall, glass eyes, hardwood beak, distressed patina. $325.00 (Item #155) DISCONTINUED
    Hunters once used heron carvings as confidence decoys;they now stand gracefully in living room sand hallways. Will's blue heron sports paint brush fibers in the eye crest.
  4. Ringnecked Plover - 6" long, glass eyes, hardwood beak, lightly distressed patina. $65.00 (Item #27) DISCONTINUED
    This little shorebird is a semipalmated plover and is distinguished from other banded plovers primarily by its bill color. Nearly shot to oblivion in the 1800's, the species has made a remarkable recovery, and is now considered abundant on most coastal beaches.

  1. Dunlin - 7-1/2 " long, distressed patina. $95.00 (Item #38) DISCONTINUED
    A new design by Will of a redbacked sandpiper in ruddy spring plumage. This bird has inspired many interesting revealing common names: Fall-snipe, Brant-bird, California Peep, Simpleton, Stip, Crooked-bill, Winter Ox-eye, Little Black-breast, and Winter-snipe. A reproduction of an old Long Island Verity family redbacked sandpiper decoy in fall plumage is in our main catalog.
  2. Teeter-Bob - 7-1/2" long, distressed patina. $95.00 (Item #39) DISCONTINUED
    While flyfish North Brook, Will watched spotted sandpipers teetering and tipping in a soggy meadow. That evening he went to work and twenty four hours later he painted his first prototypes. Again, the baymens' common names for these birds are amusing and descriptive:Tip-up, Tip-tail, Land-bird, Teeter-Tail, Teeter-peep, Twitchet, Peet-weet, Perr-wipe, Pee-weet, and Teeter-snipe.

Avocets - Western Beauties

These graceful and colorful shorebirds often feed in the shallows. They stir muddy bottoms with their beaks to flush their prey. In earlier times, avocets were plentiful throughout the United States, but unrestricted gunning by early market hunters now makes them rare east of the Mississippi. Glass eyes, distressed patina.

  1. Feeding avocet -16 inches long. $150.00 (Item #320) DISCONTINUED
  2. Turned head avocet - 10 inches long. $150.00 (Item #324) DISCONTINUED
  3. Preening avocet - 11 inches long. $150.00 (Item #322) DISCONTINUED

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