What makes a good hide? (1 Viewer)

[mcapper]

So, you all seem to me like the sort of people who visit hides a lot...

So what in your opinion makes a good hide? What design features work best to make the birder experience that bit better? What views and aspects work best to give the best spectacle and the birding experience that bit better?

I seen lots of good and bad design. Hides with floor to ceiling glass and central heating (Carsington Water), double slats (like at Cley), a hidden spectacle that suddenly reveals itself (like at Welney), tower hides, hides with benches, hides with chairs. The list goes on.

A really good list of hide design features and even a good list of the best examples out there would be a useful tool for any one designing a new hide for a reserve.

 

[ta brandreth]

no roof...

 

[Cheshire Birder]

No noisy visitors, so I can watch the birds in peace and quiet!!

CB

 

[osprey31]

Does anyone else suffer the problem of the seating in the majority of hides being a little too high ?
I wouldn't class myself as a giant...i'm 5' 11", but find it uncomfortable to spend long periods stooping my shoulders to enable me to look through the flaps.
Great workout for the stomach muscles, but a real strain on the back.

 

[hollis_f]

Does anyone else suffer the problem of the seating in the majority of hides being a little too high ?
I wouldn't class myself as a giant...i'm 5' 11", but find it uncomfortable to spend long periods stooping my shoulders to enable me to look through the flaps.
Great workout for the stomach muscles, but a real strain on the back.

The seats aren't too high, the flaps are too low. Combined with immobile benching there are some hides I (at 6'4") find totally unusable.

A good hide needs to have viewing at different heights and movable seating - so that it's possible to at least get a monopod on the floor. Oh, and doors that don't slam shut if there's more than a force 2 breeze blowing - that would be nice too.

 

[Cheshire Birder]

The seats aren't too high, the flaps are too low. Combined with immobile benching there are some hides I (at 6'4") find totally unusable.

Oh, and doors that don't slam shut if there's more than a force 2 breeze blowing - that would be nice too.

I find the exact same problem as I am similarly tall. I thought it was compulsory to have hide doors slam like that.

CB

 

[Adam W]

Good to know that being 5'7'' at least has one advantage :-O

 

[Ken Hall]

The best hide I know of is my car. It's moveable, adaptable, comfortable, and I don't have to share it with anyone if I don't want to. It also plays music quietly and serves food and drink as required.

 

[hollis_f]

The best hide I know of is my car. It's moveable, adaptable, comfortable, and I don't have to share it with anyone if I don't want to. It also plays music quietly and serves food and drink as required.

Yeah, but they didn't half complain when I tried to take mine out onto the reedbeds at Cley. o

 

[Mannix]

I can tell you how to turn a good hide into a bad one. They have done just this at Blacktoft Sands. They used to have laminated cards with the common Blacktoft birds on it but have recently got rid of those and replaced them with strips of wood (containing the pictures) nailed to the shelves at 45 degrees thus cutting the shelf size down by half and making it almost impossible to put your elbows on them comfortably. Whoever thought up this mental idea should realise that it is a hindrance to birders and take them down again.

 

[Mannix]

Another problem in some hides is when the seats are too close to the shelves and when you put your hide clamp on the shelf you have to lean right back in order to see into your scope sometimes having to hold onto the window frame with one hand to stop yourself from falling backwards off the seat.

 

[James Thomas]

Whoever thought up this mental idea should realise that it is a hindrance to birders and take them down again.

.

It's an RSPB reserve so anything they can do to discourage birders will be done.

 

[Farnboro John]

Slats must hinge up not down and are essential even when windows are glass - Blashford Lakes hide windows are fixed and are crap for photography (and birding as they steam up) in an otherwise great setting.

Benches should be movable

Shelves should not have a lip fitted to them to cut off your circulation, and no gap at the wall side to let your pen/notebook/camera fall through.

Floors must be firm and not bounce or echo boomingly as birders walk across them (concrete is best).

Height of benches/slats is an insoluble problem I reckon. All that can be done is to cater for the average.

John

 

[Pete Mella]

Some thoughts off the top of my head

1. Seats of any kind! There's one (non-RSPB) reserve near to me where there are no seats, and the windows are still at seat height. It's ridiculous.

2. Locked at night. In some areas prevents the pitfalls of birding among used condoms, dirty needles, a distracting smell of urine, etc.

3. The shelf made sturdy enough so that a kid banging on it 15 feet away doesn't wobble your scope, but equally not so thick a hide clamp won't fit on it.

4. Some kind of slam-proof mechanism on the door?

5. An spring-loaded ejector seat installed for if photographers have been taking up the same space for over three hours on a busy day.

 

[aikidoka]

Slats must hinge up not down and are essential even when windows are glass - Blashford Lakes hide windows are fixed and are crap for photography (and birding as they steam up) in an otherwise great setting.

Benches should be movable

Shelves should not have a lip fitted to them to cut off your circulation, and no gap at the wall side to let your pen/notebook/camera fall through.

Floors must be firm and not bounce or echo boomingly as birders walk across them (concrete is best).

Height of benches/slats is an insoluble problem I reckon. All that can be done is to cater for the average.

John

All sounds good

Re slat/seat height, I sometimes find the seats are too low for me (I'm 5'3"). My favourite hide on our local reserve has a couple of battered kitchen stools which are a perfect height for me, as well as the benches which aren't!

 

[John P]

- Blashford Lakes hide windows are fixed and are crap for photography (and birding as they steam up) in an otherwise great setting.


John

Blashford Lakes is an educational centre as well as being a nature reserve. Parties of schoolkids have to be catered for; the Woodland hide in particular is perfect for this with multiple feeders close to the one way glass.

Only two of the six hides have fixed windows, and those two hides do have openers at each end to allow for some airflow.

Two pics from Blashford, one from each of the hides with fixed windows.

 

[Sy V]

Ideally there should be a force field fitted on and around the apertures so that if anyone thrusts their hands out of the hide to point out a certain bird instant amputation ensues.

 

[Monahawk]

I hide with a bar would be ideal...........Slainte[Cheers].

Si.

 

[Marcus Conway - ebirder]

The best hide I know of is my car. It's moveable, adaptable, comfortable, and I don't have to share it with anyone if I don't want to. It also plays music quietly and serves food and drink as required.

Sounds great Ken - is it open to the public - I'm coming to check out the view :t:

 

[TheBirdGarden]

A door that can be locked at night is all I ask. The hides I go into have been vandalised, smell of pee and signs of someone trying to burn it down.