eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

The clock is ticking! (The Great Haiku and Algebra Bird Feeder Contest!) ends at 11:59PM EST on August 3rd, 2007. There's still plenty of time to enter, but hustle is a good idea.

Other stuff...

Feeding the birds has an interesting effect on most people - in general they become more aware of the birds around them. It also leads people into interests that they may never would have considered. Take for instance the picture below...



Obviously, the wife has taken to collecting bird carvings, and figurines. The ones above are:

• 3 duck decoys by John A. Mulak of Yarmouth on Cape Cod. They were carved in the '60s or '70s. It looks like we have:
  • A Blue-winged Teal
  • A Hooded Merganser drake
  • A Hooded Merganser hen
• A Puffin miniature, carved by June Noll of Brewster on Cape Cod in 1987
• A Jim Shore composite rooster, from the Heartwood Creek collection. (The pattern is now retired.)

Yeah, yeah, I know... Boring. But did you know that a decent Elmer Crowell decoy will sell for $10,000 to $20,000. (A new record was established in November of 2006 when one of Crowell's works sold for $830,000.) And bird replicas can be pretty good investments too. A Bowman that sold for $10,000 in 1973 went for $464,000 in 2000.

Yeah, that caught your eye didn't it. The bottom line is that if you know what you're doing, there's money in them thar wooden birds! Here are some artisan names to look out for...

• Crowell
• Lapham
• Clark
• Tremblay
• Mason (a factory)
• Pratt (another factory)
• Lincoln
• Boyd

And a quick google will tell you of upcoming decoy auctions in your area. The wife likes to watch the middle to late part of the summer, and right into the early fall.

Let's just say that a little bird told ya right by the feeders...

CapeCodAlan