The bird hides designed by Norwegian innovators Biotope are masterpieces of minimalist design that actually work for observers in the field, set up in open form while still sheltering those inside from the wind and conserving heat.
97 : Biotope hide
2012
The bird hides designed by Norwegian innovators Biotope are masterpieces of minimalist design that actually work for observers in the field, set up in open form while still sheltering those inside from the wind and conserving heat.
The hide, or blind to birders in North America, is familiar to anyone who has visited a nature reserve. Like many things in birding, it can trace its history back to hunting.
Screens which exist today on reserves as standalone wooden walls with viewing slots placed at eye height, generally intended to obscure the observer from waterbirds, originated prehistorically as somewhat lower walls of interwoven osier or willow stems, or other constructible vegetation, behind which the hunter would hide himself.
More or less the same concealment techniques have been used for centuries since, in more recent times to greater effect as new ways have been developed to improve success. For example, often having ‘seeded’ the nearby water with decoy ducks, and often using a duck call to imitate the quarry and lure waterfowl to the nearby water, the hunter would sit silently waiting a close approach with his gun (or bow or spear even further back in time).
In North America, strict rules apply to the construction of hunting blinds, with structures not being allowed more than 12 feet above the waterline, but no lower than four feet. These structures must be removed by 1 April, at the end of each season.
Hunting hides tended to be smaller affairs than the pine bungalows used by birders which are found today on many reserves. Usually just big enough for one or two people, a hunting hide would generally be placed on the edge of clearing known to be attractive to deer. A pre-dawn vigil would often result in the hoofed mammals grazing or wandering close enough for a clear shot.
The static hides of the modern bird reserve are typically more elaborate affairs, ranging from garden shed-like boxes with crude bench seats to carpeted cricket pavilion-sized barracks, and to multi-tiered tower hides with 360˚ views. The three-storey Peacock Tower Hide at the Wildlife and Wetland Trust’s showcase London Wetland Centre reserve even has a wheelchair-accessible lift. Many more popular reserves, or those closer to urban centres, have hides that more closely resemble a classroom or lecture theatre, while the RSPB has started to install tall glass walls or windows in some.
Portable hides have generally fallen out of use after moderate popularity in the early to mid-20th century, though photographers still utilise them, particularly when their subjects are lekking gamebirds or waders, raptors that have been lured to a baited area, or songbirds coming to a drinking pool. Cloth hides resembling square tents can be used by birders and photographers to watch ground-dwelling and nesting species, and were popular in India with tiger hunters.
Despite the long history of hides, they are not without their innovators and visionaries. Most of the reserves in Britain, whether owned by the RSPB, WWT, Wildlife Trusts, National Trust or private companies or individuals, have at one time or another featured hides made by Gilleard Brothers Ltd, a company that has virtually monopolised hide construction since 1975, when it built its first birding-specific hide at Blacktoft Sands RSPB Reserve. Gilleard’s structures are typically plain wooden buildings tailored for different sites, and featuring oblong viewing windows with a wide field of view, along with seating benches and shelves to lean on. This no-nonsense approach has made the company’s products affordable, popular and familiar to almost all birders in Britain, but the company has branched into ever-more complex and modern designs in recent years, maintaining its edge.
Newer on the scene are the Norwegian architects and birders Biotope, with a futuristic approach to hides that, in 2012, produced radical new open-sided birding shelters around Varangerfjord. The concept was essentially to rethink the whole ‘box with holes’ approach to traditional hide design, enabling birders to move around freely inside a modern structure to change their angle of view, while still not disturbing wildlife and being protected from the wind. Also in Varanger, the company Arntzen Arctic Adventures has provided a floating photo hide on a boat, as well as its more standard camouflaged photo hides with gas fires. Such innovative approaches to hide design and function look set to help change the ways in which we view birds at close range in future.