Washington won’t host the East Carolina Wildlife Arts Festival for the 22^nd year in a row, but one of the festival’s favorite activities remains.

Saturday, children are invited to paint their own decoys at the North Carolina Estuarium, an event that’s traditionally been held in conjunction with the festival and state decoy carving championships.

During two sessions, at 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m., East Carolina Wildfowl Guild carvers and painters will pass on the time-honored art of decoy painting.

“It’s one of the better programs that we host,” said Russ Chesson, programming specialist for the Estuarium. “Not everybody’s decoy comes out looking like its live counterpart, but the kids have a lot of fun, and it’s a way for them to explore not only art but nature in some way.”

Decoys are made of resin; the paint used to decorate them is acrylic. Decoys change from year to year — this year the miniature decoy is the common loon, a bird that spends its springs and summers in lakes and waterways of Canada and the northern United States, then heads south for the winter.

“We get some (here) during migrations,” Chesson said. “We have more part of their wintering range.”

The Estuarium is working in partnership with the wildfowl guild this year, with the Estuarium providing marketing and the venue, as it has in the past. Chesson said the Estuarium is keeping the tradition alive. in past years, the decoy-painting workshops have filled up weeks ahead of the event; this year, the 11 a.m. workshop is full, but there are still plenty of spaces available in the 9:30 a.m. workshop.

The event is free. To register a register a child for the workshop, call the Estuarium at 252-948-0000.