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Quacking up the competition at annual duck stamp contest

Davis Dunavin
/
WSHU

Every year, hundreds of artists nationwide compete to have their paintings of ducks or other waterfowl featured on a U.S. stamp. This year’s Federal Duck Stamp Contest took place in Greenwich, Connecticut.

In a hall at the Bruce Museum, a crowd is at the edge of their seats — watching as hundreds of waterfowl paintings are paraded out — one at a time.

A row of five judges examines each one — slowly and methodically.

Sometimes, the paintings can be dramatic. Entry #123 is a good example, provoking gasps.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has put this contest on since 1934. Anyone can buy a duck stamp and use it on their mail, but you have to buy one to get a duck hunting license. That’s made these stamps a long tradition for hunters.

“When we were kids, our dad collected duck stamps, and was a hunter," Joe Hautman said. He's a six-time winner and a legend in the duck stamp community, along with his brothers. They've all won this contest at least a few times.

“It’s a requirement of hunting ducks to know what they look like because you have to know what you’re shooting at,” Hautman said. “I live on a little lake, and I put out wood duck boxes and see whole generations of wood ducks and mallards.”

Each year, artists choose from five waterfowl, usually ducks, but sometimes a swan or a goose sneaks in. The hooded merganser is about half the paintings this year, it has googly eyes and a big crest on its head. But Joe’s partial to a rare duck called the Spectacled Eider, the first duck he ever won with.

@kirasabin We’ll see! Always worth it ☺️ @kess #duckstamp #artcompetition ♬ Genesis - Runa🖤

“It has two black rings around its eyes, and almost like a blanket over its bill," he said. "And almost like a mane of green feathers and … Just a very unusual-looking duck.”

The crowd skews younger than you might expect, some people in their 20s and 30s. The Duck Stamp Contest has a surprisingly big social media following from young competitors like Kira Sabin. They’ve never won, but they’ve gotten millions of views on Tiktok.

“This is why I won’t win the Federal Duck Stamp Competition," Sabin said on TikTok about their entry this year. "I chose a weird duck. People’s opinions, to each their own, but ugly duck bias is definitely a thing. There’s a reason that normal-looking ducks … have won like six times, and a Spectacled Eider has won once.”

This year's winner is entry #123, the one that provoked those gasps. And as it turns out, it’s a Spectacled Eider. Two of them, in fact, with snow-capped mountains in the background. It’s gorgeous. Tom Melius, one of the judges, agrees.

“I've seen the Spectacled Eiders in their natural habitat," Melius said. "And to me, that was a painting that just popped right from the canvas, and will make an excellent duck stamp.”

The painter is Adam Grimm of South Dakota, now a three-time winner. He can expect about a million people to buy this stamp over the next year. All that money will go to preserving the lakes, forests and other lands these ducks call home.

Correction: This story misidentified duck stamp judge Tom Melius as Greg Mensik, another judge.

Davis Dunavin loves telling stories, whether on the radio or around the campfire. He started in Missouri and ended up in Connecticut, which, he'd like to point out, is the same geographic trajectory taken by Mark Twain.