By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
After two days of wet, cold and windy weather, organizers of the 15th-annual East Carolina Wildlife Festival and North Carolina Decoy Carving Championships are hoping today — the final day of this year’s festival — will be drier, warmer and calmer.
No matter than weather, the festival in Washington will go on today, ending at 4 p.m.
The addition of a DockDogs competition to the festival is proving an excellent move, according to Neil Woolard, chairman of the festival’s DockDogs competition. The competition started Friday, but some real excitement at the DockDogs site arrived Friday night and early Saturday morning, Woolard said.
That’s when high winds relocated a tent and damaged others at Kugler Field, site of the DockDogs competition. By the start of the DockDogs competition Saturday morning, the site was back in working order.
“It’s going well, considering the weather,” Woolard said about the DockDogs competition Saturday morning. “We are looking for some sun. We are looking for some warmer temperatures.”
“I am pleased with the turnout,” Woolard said.
A crew from UNC-TV, the state’s public-television entity, was expected to videotape (for later broadcast) the competition’s various categories Saturday, Woolard said.
“It’s our first time,” said Washington resident Kent Vaughan, who brought his dog, Tide, to the competition. “I think it’s a great idea.”
Vaughan said he wanted to see how Tide would fare against other dogs in the Big Air Wave category of the competition.
“I thought it would be fun to come down here just to be a part of it,” Vaughan said Saturday afternoon.
Although dog handlers and spectators were dressed warmly to ward off the cold, the canine competitors seemed oblivious to the cold, even after making their competitive jumps. There were plenty of towels being used help dry the jumping dogs.
The DockDogs competition resumes at 9 a.m. today, concluding this afternoon.
There was more to the festival than leaping Labradors on Saturday.
Shawn Bennett, chairman of the Southern Classic Duck, Goose and Swan Calling Championships, part of the festival, said Washington was been selected as one of just a few locations that are part of a new calling competition for youth callers, the Krugerfarms.com Cup.
Washington is among five locations hosting Krugerfarms.com Cup duck-calling events this year. The city is among three locations hosting Krugerfarms.com Cup goose-calling events this year. Later, other sites may be added to the duck- and goose-calling circuits, Bennett said.
“It says a lot about our festival and calling-competitions that we were among the first to be selected,” Bennett said.
The winners of the youth duck-calling and goose-calling competitions at the festival will earn points in the Krugerfarms.com Cup, a point-race competition based on the outcome of designated youth calling-contests across the country. Youth competition callers who are 16 years of age and younger will be able to compete in the designated calling contests in order to earn points toward a total. The individuals with the highest total in the duck and goose divisions of the Krugerfarms.com Cup after the respective world championship for each will be crowned the winners.
The winners of the duck and goose point races will receive prize packages from Krugerfarms.com (worth an estimated $2,000 each), a plaque and have their names engraved on the Krugerfarms.com Cups that reside at the store in Minnesota.
“I believe being a part of this nationwide competition will make the Southern Classic even more prestigious,” Bennett said. “Because we are part of the circuit, youth callers from around the nation will be coming to Washington so they can earn points toward the national championships.”
The Southern Classic concludes today at the west end of Stewart Parkway with the junior-level competitions in the state duck-, state goose- and world swan-calling contests and the state championships for duck calling and goose calling. Saturday’s events included the Pamlico Regional Duck Calling Competition, Southern Classic Goose Calling Competition and the World Swan Calling Championship.
The carving competitions, conducted at the Redmen’s Lodge on East Third Street, also conclude today with the presentation of awards.
The 2010 International Wildfowl Carvers Association’s National Shorebird Style Championship is part of the carving competitions. Also, the East Carolina Young Guns Youth Competition was added as a division of the carving championships this year, according to material from the East Carolina Wildfowl Guild, organizer of the festival. The Young Guns contest is for carvers 17 years old or younger. Entries will be judged in three categories: ages 9 and under, ages 10-13 and ages 14-17. The contest is for working decoys only.