Bird Blind Construction - 17 December 2005
Bill Rogers
I’d been at Hoffler Creek Wildlife
Preserve for a short morning walk Saturday, December 10th, without thinking
that day was a Preserve work day. They
had planned to start on two new bird blinds on the Riparian (n Eagle) Trail. Clark White, Ashley Morgan and I had
previously marked out the locations for the two blinds with surveyor flags.
But only two young men showed up to work off some of their
community hours - not enough folks to do the blinds. And I had not the time to stay. William Edwards, of the Preserve, had those
gents haul in the five stockade fence sections to be used for the blinds. The 4x4x10-ft posts and 1x4x8-ft curtain
boards were already on site.
On the 13th I think it was, I sent out an e-mail to the Tidewater
Appalachian Trail Club Tuesday Group asking for volunteers, sending copies to
Tom Reed a fellow Pulaskiteer, and Mike McManus, both
of whom live on my side of the many Tidewater rivers. As an enticement, I said I’d have hot cocoa
for lunch, if each person would bring his or her own water and insulated cup.
We ended up being a group of five for the day’s work; i.e., myself, Tom Reed, Mike McManus, and Bruce and Margaret
Julian. We met at the Preserve when it
opened at 10:00 a.m. I had three
photographs of other blinds so all could see the general nature of what we were
to do. But none of us had ever worked on
a bird blind.
But we had a great deal of fun learning as we worked. I think we made each measurement at least
three times !
We put in the four posts for the first 3-section blind, then nailed on
two fence sections. Thinking we’d run
out of time, and knowing that we could not finish, we moved over to the other
site and put in the three 4x4x10-ft posts there.
Somewhere along the line we took a long lunch break, sitting on
various shopping bags and pads for our meal.
Margaret had brought donuts, Mike had brought little 4-inch Wal*Mart apple and blueberry pies. I broke out my backpacking stove and soon had
a pot of steaming water for hot chocolate, with mini marshmallows even ! ’Twas a fine lunch there in the woods looking out over the creek
and marsh. The day was chill, quite
chill, but the sun was warm, there were no clouds, and there was no wind. We
were all comfy warm; layers came off as we worked.
During the day and our walking back and forth, Margaret saw a buck
and a doe white-tailed deer, and Bruce saw a gray fox. I saw an osprey splash down trying for its
lunch, and we all saw him lift off the water and fly. But he only flew to gain a little altitude
then stopped in mid-air to do a doggie shake to rid him/herself
of creek water. In the bright sunlight
we could see the drops as they flew off in every direction. A moment later this beautiful raptor took
another dive, close enough for us to both see and hear the splash. Again no luck.
As we were putting in the last post William Edwards came by to see
how we were doing. We finished that post
then called it a day. It would be 4:00
p.m. before we returned to the parking lot and the preserve closes at four.
Several of the postholes needed more concrete, and one 4x4 needed
to have a 2x4 scabbed to one side. Our
measurements had been correct, but when we turned the post a bit to get the
angle for the next fence section we lost the nailing space for that fence
section. Oh well . . . The 2x4 would work. I could purchase it and the added concrete we
needed before the next trip (I did and carried it in on a freighter pack).
It had been a good day, with good company and nice treats added to
our sandwich lunches. As we bid adieu
and said our “Merry Christmases,” I said I’d put in an e-mail report, then follow it in a couple of days with a suggested date in
January to complete our work. I did.
And yes, we went back in January for a major day’s work. A couple of us showed up two more times for
little detail work. The blinds look
good. All that’s left is to do some
branch trimming in front of the blinds after leaves pop in the spring.
P.S. William Edwards at the
preserve took the photographs.