Editor's Note: Seasoning

On the cover: Wes Demarest photographed Al Jordan’s saw-whet owl. Readers may recognize Wes’s work from the photography he does each year of the Ward World Championship for Competition.

When you work for a magazine, you begin to lose track of the calendar. It seems like I'm always a season off. We put together this Winter issue during the fall, which is confusing enough, but this is the Winter 2011 issue, and I'm still embedded deep in the heart of 2010. No wonder I have trouble remembering what year it is when New Year's Day finally does roll around.

That said, fall is my favorite season. The leaves are turning, the ducks are flying in increasing numbers down the creek across the road from my house, and the new crispness in the air adds some spring to my step. Fall also means my annual visit to the Waterfowl Festival in Easton, Maryland, where I can catch up with a lot of the carvers whose work appears in this magazine and nag the ones whose work hasn't appeared in the magazine for a while. (You know who you are.) For many readers, fall also means it's time to go hunting over decoys you've carved yourself. It's a great time of year.

But by the time you read this, fall will be a receding memory, and winter will have us in its grip. Actually, now that I think of it, winter is my favorite season...

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has contributed to the new From Our Carvers section of our website. We've received many photos of some really fine work, and I invite everyone to check it out and perhaps submit your own carvings. However, please continue to send us photos of your work for use in the magazine's Reader Showcase section. Why not contribute to both? You can get that near-instantaneous gratification of seeing your work on the Internet but also that long-term satisfaction of discovering it in print, too. 

I'd also like to take this opportunity to welcome back someone whose name will be familiar to many of you. Candi Derr used to be the editor of this magazine until she moved on to raise a family. Now she's back to help us push the magazine to new heights. 

This article is from the Winter 2011 issue. For more information on our issues, check out our issues page.​