Keith Mueller
Active member
I was on Long Island, NY in February visiting with three friends and collectors and we stopped off at a local cove to look for waterfowl and hopefully take a few pictures. This small cove was full of mallards and Canada geese, and quite a few gadwall, ringnecks and a small flock of eight shovelers. One of my friends was trying out his new 100-400 IS Canon lens to match his new Canon camera....and we took a whole bunch of images. Even though the day was very overcast (just after a snow storm) it was great to be able to take images of shovelers in the Northeast where we don't see them too often. As I was in "shoveler heaven" one of the drakes swam right in front of us, and he was absolutely gorgeous. In my excitement I muttered under my breath....."I want to go home and carve him", to which I received a very excited response...."I'll take him"!! So here is the "Long Island snowstorm" inspired drake shoveler gunning grade decoy.
This decoy is carved from tupelo and is hollow. The wingtips are inserted "bulletwood" and the insertion procedure is just as in my book featuring the wigeon decoy.
The "rough carved" decoy......
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On most of my decoys, my "signature" component is an exotic wood bottom insert plate, and a carved exotic wood keel (if one is used on the decoy). Since I have seen wintering shovelers in Costa Rica on both coasts, I wanted to add this element to the decoy. On this bird, the bottom board is Western red cedar, and I used beautiful macadamia nut wood for the bottom insert plate. Macadamia nuts are grown on the middle elevations of the Caribbean slopes.
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The bird is finish sanded........
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To signify the Pacific coast, I carved the keel from one of my most favorite wood species; mango. This is curly mango wood. Although the keel is a functional part of the decoy, I like to add an artistic component to the decoy by adding a "visual dynamic" to the keels design.
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This decoy is carved from tupelo and is hollow. The wingtips are inserted "bulletwood" and the insertion procedure is just as in my book featuring the wigeon decoy.
The "rough carved" decoy......
View attachment Resized_1.jpg
View attachment Resized_2.jpg
On most of my decoys, my "signature" component is an exotic wood bottom insert plate, and a carved exotic wood keel (if one is used on the decoy). Since I have seen wintering shovelers in Costa Rica on both coasts, I wanted to add this element to the decoy. On this bird, the bottom board is Western red cedar, and I used beautiful macadamia nut wood for the bottom insert plate. Macadamia nuts are grown on the middle elevations of the Caribbean slopes.
View attachment Resized_3.jpg
The bird is finish sanded........
View attachment Resized_4.jpg
To signify the Pacific coast, I carved the keel from one of my most favorite wood species; mango. This is curly mango wood. Although the keel is a functional part of the decoy, I like to add an artistic component to the decoy by adding a "visual dynamic" to the keels design.
View attachment Resized_5.jpg
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