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| Going from collecting to making his own duck and goose calls has turned
into a busy sideline for Glen Phillips, and avid outdoor enthusiast and
a locksmith by trade who works for Salisbury University.
One of the reasons Phillips began producing the handcrafted calls was to provide one-of-a-kind birthday presents for his young son's friends. About three years ago, when his son Hunter was four, Phillips started the LIttle Quackers Outdoor Club, which now has a membership of about 40. Phillips also began appearing at a number of outdoor shows each year and at some of them conducts duck and goose calling contests which anyone can enter and are popular with the participants as well as spectators. Phillips, a 1984 graduate of Stephen Decatur High School, has been active in the Department of Natural Resources Reserve Officer Program and for the past 10 years has done rehabilitation of injured animals for the state. "One reason I started the outdoor club was to point kids in the right direction, if they want to be a park ranger, natural resource police officer, naturalist or biologist." |
Smithsonian Folk life Festival Program , "Water Ways:
The Past, Present, and Future of Maritime Communities in the Mid-Atlantic
"
One of the areas of this program, "Waterfowling and Marsh Life" will bring together master decoy carvers with a duck and goose call maker , and will include a marsh with live plants and a duck blind. Starting with collecting duck calls, Glen Phillips has turned to making calls and whistles, first for his son and now as a sideline. He is a skilled craftsmen who specializes in duck, goose, chicken and turkey calls, as well as all kinds of wildlife whistles. Several years ago Phillips started Little Quacker Outdoor Club, which now has a membership of about 75. He also began appearing in a number of outdoor shows each year and at some of them conducts duck and goose calling contests: popular with the participants as well as spectators. June 23-27 in the vicinity of the National Mall in Washington, DC. |
| "Phillips has also pioneered a few innovations, such
as a top-blow whistle and ones designed specifically for smaller hands and
mouths.
He distributes a limited number of his simplest hand-produced whistles free of charge at some shows. The Ward World is one of them; a major event held annually in Easton is another. The Lil' Quackers founder hand crafts several styles of whistles and calls, each with a distinctive feature unique unto itself. Most are designed to attract a particular species, or groups of them. He even makes deer calls." Glen was featured in the Maryland Beachcomber |