Will Kirkpatrick's Decoy Shop

Songbirds

Stand-Up Crow - 16 1/2-inches long. $150.00 (Item #715) Put bird in bag

Crows are wily, brazen, vocal, audacious, opportunistic, vicious, rapacious, social, clever, confident, boisterous, intelligent, canny, murderous egg stealers and dirty scavengers. But, they are also glorious survivors. We can?t help but admire and enjoy them. This large Crow carving is taken from a decoy pattern created to be used in the field. Will started by drawing the birds from first-hand observation. He then translated the drawings to patterns and layed them out on planks. Many decoys carvers of the 1800?s worked in this way.

Caw-Down Crow - 16 1/2-inches long. $150.00 (Item #716) Put bird in bag

Meadowlark - 10-inches high. $150.00 (Item #714) Put bird in bag

This is an original creation using 19th century decoy carvers? techniques. This meadowlark?s complex plumage was difficult to translate into paint, but by reverting to stippling and blending techniques found on old shorebird decoys, the feathering fell into place and the result is quite natural. The eastern variety is declining in population due to loss of habitat. They are field dwellers and those pairs fortunate enough to find a desirable meadow are often thwarted in their efforts to raise a brood because of early mowing. However, they are persistent, and will often produce a second brood. Their song was once known to all and has been referenced in literature from Shakespeare to the present. Six states have chosen the meadowlark as their state bird.

Lady Cardinal - 8 inches long, hand-rubbed, distressed patina, simulated glass eyes.$75.00 (Item #217) Put bird in bag

The bad news is that Will's male Cardinal is no longer available. The good news is that the female Cardinal has arrived! While the male Cardinal is favored and admired for his flamboyant plumage, the female gets little notice. Will thinks it should be otherwise. The subtle coloring of the female is subdued for protection. Yet it is one of the most overlooked and most wonderfully colored of all birds. This is a hand-carved original by Will Kirkpatrick.

Bob-o-link - 7 ½ inches long, glass eyes, is , carved in beak, carved in primaries and distressed paint. $70.00 (Item #219) Put bird in bag

This is Will's own conception of an ebullient spring visitor.. In recent times, slow but steady loss of New England's fields and meadows, has caused a serious decline in the numbers of Bob-o-links. Previously, as our land was cleared for farming, their numbers increased and their range spread rapidly westward. Before that time, they inhabited interior grasslands and salt marshes, primarily in the East. Their familiar song, a torrent of bubbly exhortations in the spring, was a key sign that winter was over. The male's plumage has been compared to a formal tuxedo worn backwards. Will says, "The first time I saw a Bob-o-link, the straw colored head patch looked bright pink as it mixed with the late afternoon light". In early times, they were hunted in the South where they gorged themselves on rice plantations causing severe economic loss. They are in sanctuary once they arrive in the North and, from the sound of their song, they seem to know it.

Flying barn swallows
Flying barn swallows - Mounted on stout rusted wire in a grain painted base. $140.00 each.
  • Left - Twisted Flight Barn Swallow: Life Sized, 7 inches long. $160.00 (Item #205) Put bird in bag
  • Right - Normal Flying Barn Swallow: Life Sized, 7 inches long. $160.00 (Item #204) Put bird in bag

I am pleased to introduce this pair of flying barn swallows. I have been fascinated with these birds since I visited a boyhood friend's farm. It was while playing in the hayloft that I first saw birds flying indoors. They ignored us as they busily built their nests and later as they tended their young. As a young man, I was amazed by their flying abilities as I watched them over meadows during late afternoons while I fly fished. They would skim bugs off the surface of the water; and later, as mayflies rose high into the air

during their courtship flights, would rise with them, so high sometimes, that they were almost invisible. I always I loved their complimentary colors and graceful silhouettes. These are the impressions and memories that inspired me as I carved this pair. -WEK

Forbush and May, in "A Natural History of American Birds" have written a wonderful monograph on barn swallows. A few highlights:

It is the only native American swallow with a forked, "swallow tail". Barn swallows originally built their mud, straw and feather nests in caves and undercut cliffs, but with the coming of settlers in colonial times, adapted to the shelter of barns, sheds, bridges, boat-houses, wharves, abandoned houses, and other large buildings. Forbush heard of a barn with 200 nests, but reports having seen up to 40 nests in a barn In farmer's fields, they gathered in great numbers to follow the reapers and mowers, and anything else that stirred up insects. Farmers could foretell the weather by their flying activity. They rear two broods a year. The young leave the nest in 16 days or so. The males usually tend the first brood by himself as the female prepares the nest for the second brood. The young from the first brood are known to sometimes return to help the parents feed the second brood. They gather in August around marshes and rivers, then fly together to the seashore where they prepare for the flight south in huge flocks.

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