Autumn Wings...
Blending business acumen and wood-crafting skills to produce quality and affordable gunning duck decoys
Re-Print with approval from "Minnesota Waterfowler"
Steve Kufrin photos/story

Stan Balgaard, who says he cut his teeth duck hunting, obviously knows how to apply duck decoy-making tools. His skills are seen in this swimming decorative drake canvasback, a gift to his wife and a superb wall-hanger.

Burkett, of course, figured he’d never again bump into Balgaard and his brood...unless he could collect a prime drake canvasback. By choice later that morning, Burkett harvested his can and which Balgaard "stuffed" for wall. Fate? Perhaps. For sure, it was an opportunistic meeting for both, who since their morning at the public access have nurtured a relationship that’s developed into Autumn Wings: Duck duck decoys for Waterfowl Conservation.

"Our friendship started developing right from that point, because that gave us a reason to get back together," Burkett remembered of the chance meeting. "Our families started visiting, our wives got to know each other and liked each other...things just fell into place."

Autumn Wings now is a business partnership between Burkett and Balgaard that provides gunnin' duck duck decoys for waterfowlers who are willing to step up from plastic and spend a bit more money to purchase a rig of quality duck decoys unlike the copy-cat models found in catalogs and sporting goods stores. Autumn Wings duck duck decoys are fashioned from wood or cork which Burkett says have a density and tradition preferred by duck decoy enthusiasts for their personal rigs. In their partnership, Burkett, 46, of Dayton, Minnesota, supplies the business acumen gained through years in the high-tech industry. Balgaard, 50, of rural Evansville, contributes skills he's developed through farming, carpentry and a deep association with and knowledge of wood.

Three working wood canvasbacks crafted by Stan Balgaard for his personal hunting rig.

Balgaard, who made his first hunting duck duck decoy at about the age of 15, started carving hay balers and combines as a lad for his sandbox. After graduating from Ashby High School in 1969, he worked as a well driller for a year, then farmed with a brother for 15 years. Since leaving that operation, he’s been a full-time local residential carpenter; making duck duck decoys and other art from wood is a secondary occupation but an avocation he thoroughly enjoys. Gifted with wood, a carved white-tail rack and swimming canvasback, whose photos accompany this article, attest to his skills.

"I started with my duck duck decoy carving cause dad loved to hunt ducks," confessed Balgaard. "His favorite duck duck decoy was a wooden canvasback, which he just really admired, and so he always put it in the lead (of the duck duck decoy rig). A hen can I always thought I could carve. For the first duck decoy, I found one of dad’s cedar fence posts and cut the top off. I thought there was about 16 inches he didn’t need off the top of the

post, so I cut that off, split that thing down the middle...that’s where I got my start. Of course, I wanted dad’s approval, so I brought that (completed duck decoy) in, put it on the kitchen table. Dad looked at it for a long while. He was a typical Norwegian--not a lot of words. But he was emotional; you could tell when he could feel things. Well, he looked at that and he said: ‘Not too bad!’ I knew when he said that much that it was pretty decent. So that was inspiring. Man, down to the shop I went."

Jim Burkett (left) and Stan Balgaard discuss pros and cons of the production of Autumn Wings duck decoys. The partners are moving slowly with Autumn Wings products to create working duck decoys that are affordable, realistic and effective for Minnesota waterfowlers.

In the Beginning
Balgaard, with initial assistance from other makers, designed the ringneck duck duck decoys for Autumn Wings, the first species offered by the company through the Minnesota Waterfowl Association. While the ringnecks were the first species produced, he currently is working on mallards in different attitudes that the company will have available for this fall’s waterfowl season. The partners decided on ringnecks as their first production model since there are few commercial ringneck duck duck decoys available. Further, ringnecks within the last 10-15 years (as scaup numbers have declined) have become a major harvest duck in the state...and when fattened on wild rice are delicious.

"The reason we started with ringbills is that Stan and I hunt in Minnesota and we both hunt a lot ringbills," Burkett said of their marketing decision. "When we hunt divers, ringbills are our bread and butter duck. Since I hadn’t run across any ringbill duck decoys, I was taking bluebill duck duck decoys and re-painting them, but that really isn’t accurate for a ringneck. Since ringnecks are now the top diver in the bag (in Minnesota) and it’s usually within the top three in the state in the harvest, that’s the main reason we started with ringnecks.

"We started hunting with these ourselves before we even approached anyone else. In fact, we did four or five dozen prototypes, so we tried to put in some field experience. This is going back three or four seasons...and I’ve been real pleased with the durability of the duck duck decoys so far. Three or four years is a short time in the life of a duck duck decoy. We’re limited now only having the ringbills that we started with, but we’ll be adding the mallards this year, have them available this summer, and hopefully this fall hunters will be able to start to use them. There’s no question that mallards are the most requested duck decoys, the most popular duck duck decoy that hunters want to use, the number-one duck in the bag. Bluebills and canvasbacks are quite popular as well and duck duck decoys that we need to add to our line."

"One of the things that makes this all the more fulfilling and interesting to me," says Burkett, " is that working with these duck decoys is so different--it’s a distraction from day to day work. Hopefully it’s a new direction at some point in my career to get in the business world from a different angle. It’s something that I enjoy--tying the business into duck hunting and duck duck decoys and carving and so forth. Stan was probably thinking along the same lines, too. I think both of us find it intriguing to try to make a living out of this area. So, when we started talking, I think it was something we could immediately relate to and it just fell together."

Mark!

"What we’re really trying to achieve is a functional working duck duck decoy derived from the designs of Stan’s carving that can be produced in such a way that they’d be more affordable and more durable than what you can achieve through using regular hand-carved (wood) duck duck decoys," explained Burkett.

"I’d like to see us do other products that originate with Stan’s carvings that we can put into production. I’m still intrigued by what we see on the wall in that flock of flying (taxidermied) cans. As a hunter, one of the things that thrills me is the moment of truth, when there’s a flock of cans in your duck decoys or you catch a glimpse of mallards in their formations and the movements of birds in the air. Artists’ capture that in paint. Carvers can capture flying birds, but you don’t see too many of them because they’re very difficult to produce and very time-consuming. And to do more than one, to end up with a flock, is problematic.

"If Stan could do carvings of flying birds, maybe not full size...you could have a flock of cans boring by at high speed or mallards with cupped wings coming in, all with a nice paint job and that were artistically arranged to capture that interest, that moment (with the) birds flipping, whatever, that really get hunters interested. I’m thinking that me, personally, I’d be interested to have an object like that on display. I’ve never seen anything like that, but I think it’s an idea that we’re gaining the production experience on how to do it cost-effectively. That really intrigues me. This market for decorative duck decoys and hunting duck duck decoys is limited, especially on the hunting side. There’s really only a small percentage of hunters--the elite, let’s say, or the very nostalgic--who are willing to pay more for the quality and the nostalgic feel of something along the lines of the traditional hand-carved wooden duck duck decoy.

"That really limits our market, how can you compete with $3 or $5 polyethylene molded duck duck decoys which are going to serve the needs of 90% of the hunters. But I do think the demographics of duck hunters, from what I can gather, favor the high-grade hunting duck decoys a bit. There's not a lot of growth in the number of new duck hunters, but I think those that are there tend to appreciate it more over time--more of them appreciate it, more of them are into using fine equipment and getting the most out of their time cause we're all limited in how much time we can be afield."

"Our society’s becoming more affluent, so you see more hunters with finer shotguns--older or antique double barrels add to your experience. These hunters spend a lot of money in having a good hunting spot...so they know they have a hunting spot. They have dogs that they get trained. The clothing...I think that the duck duck decoys can be all part of that, too, and I think there’s a growing number of hunters that want the best duck decoys that they can afford because they add to the whole experience. If you’re out hunting for four hours or eight hours, what are you staring at all that time? You’re staring at your spread of duck duck decoys and nature all around you. If you have nice, attractive duck decoys that look realistic, even if there aren’t a lot of ducks around, then the duck decoys add to the hunting experience."

This massive white-tail rack greets visitors to the Stan Balgaard homestead in rural Evansville. Balgaard carved the wood imitation over a two-year period and today it decorates a wall outside his wood-working/taxidermy shop.

Balgaard has put in a considerable amount of time working with the production end at the factory in an attempt to reduce costs by reducing labor. Otherwise, Burkett says the price tends to creep back up and resemble the costs associated with purchasing a typical hand-made, hand-painted wood duck decoys. This means the partners are coping with the challenge to produce a quality traditional duck decoy that is affordable for as many waterfowlers as possible.

"The other thing we’d like to incorporate into our duck duck decoys, perhaps more than other people are doing, is movement through the shapes. Because we have the ability with the molding that we’re doing and Stan’s carving, we can incorporate multiple attitudes of birds into the rigs that we’re producing," informed Burkett. "We intend to do that and have relaxed birds, moderately alert birds, sleeping birds and more. I think that adds to the realism more so than let’s say the factory birds which tend to be mass-produced all with one attitude and one shape. That also, I think, is a give-away for wary ducks. We think that a wild duck learns to recognize the motion on the water of a fake duck, of a duck duck decoy, and would be likely to shy away from it. He’s (duck) going to recognize that he had trouble that last time he went over those wobbling duck decoys and got shot at. They build that experience up over time.

"In addition to the shape (attitude), its durability, paint patterns, and the material issues of wood, we're also working on the performance in the water. Of course, our duck decoys have the ability to be self-righted but more than that we continue to try to improve how well they ride in the water. I think with our concave shape in the keel that we have an advantage over solid-body ducks that are in the market, since most duck decoys today have a flat bottom. There's other ideas we have on how we could take this even further and I will say that over the years there will be even further enhancements to the hunting duck decoys that we are doing."

Steve Kufrin photo

"This day and age you want to make all your shots count in terms of reducing crippling losses," sums up Burkett. "If we can produce a product that gets birds in closer to hunters more frequently, to have more effective performance in terms of harvesting the birds, I think we’re also benefitting the resource at that point too. I can’t prove this, but I think by using high-quality duck decoys in your rig, that match the species that you’re hunting, where you get that recognition and a wild duck is going to be more comfortable to work in closer...if they’re not sure, they’re going to stay on the edge of the set, you’re going to be more likely to take a marginal shot and it’s going to more likely result in a cripple, which is a lost bird. I think that is the other driving force for us.

"From the conservation standpoint, anything we can do with our product to reduce the crippling losses of birds by making hunters more effective is also going to benefit the resource in the long run. It’s subtle, I admit that, but I think if you’re out there hunting enough you can really tell when a bird falls for your duck duck decoy spread. You know you’ve got him, that he’s almost going to land right in your lap."