The carving component of the annual East Carolina Wildlife Arts Festival and North Carolina Decoy Carving Championships won’t have as many competitions as in years past.

This year, according to the East Carolina Wildfowl Guild, competitions won’t be held in the O’Neal’s Drug Store Gunning Decoy division or the Tar River Annual Decoy Event division. The guild sponsors the following competitions: North Carolina Decoy Carving Championship division, decorative-head carving division, Pamlico River gunning pairs, contemporary antique decoy division and the North Carolina songbird division.

This year, the hooded Merganser drake is the species for the North Carolina carving championship, with the black-bellied whistling duck drake the species for the decorative head carving championship. This year, any marsh duck is the category in the Pamlico gunning decoy pairs carving contest. The carving competitions (tentative) include seven International Wildfowl Carvers Association contests.

Carving champions will be announced Sunday afternoon (about 3 p.m.) at the Peterson Building next to the Washington Civic Center.

Approximately $8,000 in prize money could be distributed, including the $1,000 purchase award that goes to the winner of the North Carolina Decoy Carving Championship. First-in-show prize monies range from $1,000 to $100, depending upon division.

The IWCA competitions  — which include open, intermediate and novice categories — also include the following: competition-grade decorative life-size wildfowl decoys (floating), decorative life-size carvings (identify sex and species), decorative miniatures, Pamlico gunning decoys, working decoys (Charles Moore memorial), IWCA-type shorebird-style carvings (identify species) and Tri-County Telephone canvas gunning decoys.

The city’s tourism website — www.littlewashingtonnc.com — has a link to the festival’s website. (Click on the “Arts and Culture” icon, then scroll down that page to the “East Carolina Wildlife Arts Festival” link and click on it.) Another option is to simply visit www.ecwaf.com to access the festival’s website. Both options provide links to details of the carving contests.