Planning and construction wildlife hides

The following is a planning and construction guide for wildlife watching hides that aims to help a wildlife watching entrepreneur / operator to maximise the visitor experience, attract the right kind of customers to their operation and avoid costly mistakes, both financially and for the natural areas in which they are located.

Location of the hide

Location and positioning of a hide is fundamental to its effectiveness for viewing and photographing wildlife. The following considerations should be taken into account when selecting a suitable hide location. Fast shipping and quality guarantee. Ordering UK cheap replica watches from our online shop is a wisdom choice.

Orientation

Hides should be orientated in the most suitable possible direction to benefit the user and enhance the experience offered. Things to think about include:

• Where is the sunlight coming from at the times of day when wildlife is most likely to visit the hide location (typically sunrise and sunset). The angle of the sunrise or sunset in key seasons should be carefully considered for the purposes of photography. If and where the shadow falls earliest should also be thought of. In Europe, hides often face northward, giving opportunities for side light in early mornings and late evenings. Facing westward is also an alternative, where you get fully lit motifs in the morning and backlit motifs in the evening. fake omega watches Photographers and wildlife enthusiasts will prefer dawn and sunset light, more general tourists will often prefer just the sunset;
• Hides can be located within existing features of the landscape, for example camouflaged into bushes or trees, stonewalls, hedges, in depressions in the ground, integrated into historical buildings, or rock features.
• Background view – a backdrop that is not the sky is preferred, like perhaps a forest / hill / mountain to provide a clean backdrop and not a broken horizon across the image. There should not be any man made structures such as power lines, houses, fences, roads, or railways in the view.
• Foreground/scene setting – a clean foreground and scene setting is essential with no garbage, visible feeders or other man-made objects, and no disturbing bushes or trees that obscure the view from the hide. If raptors are the subject and if there is no good tree for them to use for perching, it is a good idea to bring in and mount a good looking natural tree trunk/ branch somewhere in front, at the proper distance (but not with branches visibly cut by saw). Views from a hide should always be natural and aesthetically good looking. Quality replica watches online store: UK high quality fake watches are all available.

Wildlife

Ensure the hide is positioned in a place where the chances of viewing wildlife are highest. Knowledge of the most heavily used game trails is key, and the availability of water/ponds/springs are also crucial factors in hotter and drier areas. These factors adapt for different species through the year. Keep in mind when the main visitor period is planned to be. Hides could preferably be moveable to adjust for wildlife movements and prevent unnecessary damage to the landscape especially in wilder areas.

User profiling

Identify the target user group / market that the hide will service. It is essential to understand the type of visitors the hide is being designed for:

• General public;
• Nature lovers;
• Nature photography enthusiasts;
• High-end tourists.
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Exterior design

Always select the hide type that does the job for the client with the least impact on your budget, the environment and wildlife. Permanent hides should be built preferably using sustainably sourced local materials and in local construction styles where possible. These can of course all be adapted to fit into the local landscape, especially through choice of wall, roof material and location.
Hide users are generally very sensitive to maintaining the wild integrity of the landscapes in which the hides are situated. They don’t want the hide itself to ruin the wild feeling of the landscape.

• Given it is better to design a semi mobile / non-permanent hide it is important to consider the foundations very carefully. We strongly recommend that hides are not built on a concrete slab or foundation and especially not if it is going to be situated in a core wilderness area. Concrete slabs easily send the wrong message, as they do not feel like true nature. If there is definitely a requirement for some permanent foundations (underwater hides, dug down hides and drinking stations for example) these have to be designed very creatively and sensitively so as to avoid negative visual or environmental impact, and rather be placed in buffer areas and not in core wilderness areas. At a low price, men and women can both afford the best 1:1 omega replica watches with top quality.
• Mounting the hide on the ground could be done in a number of ways, depending on what the ground is like – on logs or on beams, or with metal poles stuck into the ground. On broad skis or runners is also possible. In bogs are often used long beams reaching far outside the size of the hide, some times with planks underneath.
• Camouflage is not an ideal material to put on the outside of a hide partly because it looks very military and can give incorrect connotations about the hide. Traditional materials most often look better and more organic.

Interior design

The interior design of the hide will depend on the type of hide, user, and purpose:

• Chairs or benches to accommodate the hide users are important and must be included with photographers in mind. They will be sitting for long periods of time so they must be very comfortable, for example rotating office chairs with armrests and if a bench is used something soft for the client to sit on like well-filled cushions covered in canvas;

• “Separate viewing window and camera lens port hole hide” – here a sturdy support bench is needed along the interior front side and under the camera lens port holes in order to be able to fix the camera mounts/ball heads in holes in the bench. Swiss high quality copy watches at affordable prices have everything that one expects to find.
• Situated above the camera lens port holes, there then has to be a low, panoramic viewing window, with double-glass mirror glass (as to avoid condensation/fogging), at the comfortable eye-view level for an average sized user.
• “Shoot-through-the-glass” technical solution, you don’t need an interior bench at all and the visitor can use their tripods instead. The mirror glass hide gives by far the best general view/ visitor experience and it is also recommended for action & bird photo hides too. Here the quality of the glass is of paramount importance and often the single biggest expense. If the glass is of poor quality then all pictures taken through it will be distorted or not quite sharp enough, meaning users risk being be very unhappy.
• A window frame in anodized steel (prevents rust) is needed for the glass window. The window needs to be able to be opened inwards within that frame, with the hinges on the bottom and two stops prepared – one with just a few centimetres opening, to give the window an angle, so that the wildlife sees only the sky reflected and not themselves, and one at 90 degrees, so that the window front can be cleaned while sitting in the hide.
• A window shutter made in plywood or similar, hinged on the topside, is also needed to cover the window when the hide is not being used, or for when you need to clean the front side of the window. The shutter should preferably be adjustable up and down with a string from inside the hide. Buying cheap fake watches wholesale with both low price and high quality at our online store.
• Keeping the window clean is of the outmost importance and this needs daily maintenance. Raindrops on the window are a problem, so you need a long overhang of the roof, c 1000 mm.;
• When sunlight shines directly in through the glass wildlife can observe you and your movements. Hides should therefore also include black curtains hanging from a stiff wire or a runner along the inner roof, with holes cut in the curtain for each photo position to fit the lens through.
• The “Shoot-through-the-glass” hide is best for warmer places and seasons. If it is cold and damp outside, the single glass pane window will easily get fog/condensation on the inside if the ventilation is not very good. One way to solve this is to mount some small propeller fans beside the window, powered for example from a car battery or a solar panel located either on the roof of the hide or some distance away, out of sight.
• For photography in this type of hide photographers will need to bring their own tripods. Therefore the interior can be quite empty except for a place to sit comfortably and maybe a small shelf right under the window to store small items.

Further hide details:

• Ventilation through at least a high out-hole and low in-hole to regulate temperature; in hot areas more ventilation is needed and don’t forget mosquito netting on the outside;
• Dark coloured mosquito netting over all ventilation holes as light grey mosquito netting is really difficult to look through;
• Wildlife watching operators that focus on large carnivores often want to have a high chimney tube to stop human scent from dispersing at ground level. These are often made of VVS plumbing pipes, connected together to create a 4-5 metre high chimney. Don’t forget the U-bend on the top to stop rain water coming down through it.
• Overhanging roof, c 1000 mm, in order to protect camera lens fronts and windows from rain and snow;
• Normally no shoes inside the hide as it is much easier to keep clean that way. Keep boots and rubber boots outside under a roof in a dry place.Buy high quality breitling fake watches with Swiss movements for modern men and women.
• Some operators put up black plastic cylinders on the outside of the shutter, so that something camera-lens-like is “poking out” from the walls all the time, also when there is no one there.
• The floor material surface should be silent and sound muffling. Many operators use plastic 10 mm ground insulation mats on top of the floor. They muffle noise and keep feet warmer, but are not good if visitors want to use tripods.
• Shelves above the window not too deep. Max 250 mm.

Important optional extras:

• A connected, separate dry toilet facility – this should be directly connected to the hide but in a separate room. The toilet should be designed with waste processing and any odours/smells in mind so as to not impact on the environment, the visitor experience or put off wildlife
• Room for berths/beds – in narrow hides a berth/bench space can also act as a sitting bench. Beds can also fold down nicely from the back wall, there is standard kit to order for this if needed;
• It is a good idea to have a few extra tripods with ball heads available for clients who didn’t bring theirs. Wish you find your replica watches uk paypal online sale.
• An optional feature is insulation to protect from the weather and regulate the inside temperature. This could include floor and roof insulation. There are big technical differences in the requirements between very hot and very cold areas. Where it is very hot, a double roof with air in-between, can be considered.
• Short shelves for storage;
• Wi-Fi network connectivity and electricity to make it possible to charge cameras and upload images;
• Live webcam – to be considered in certain instances for PR and publicity reasons;
• Trap cameras can be very useful to find out the most suitable spots where the most wildlife move around and therefore the best places to erect a hide;
• A simple heating system. Butane gas heaters are the most common.

High end tourists

Hides for this target group should include all the features of the ‘nature photography enthusiast hides’ but also the following:

• More comfortable bed (double if possible) and planned for a couple only;
• Furnishings;
• Suitable interior wall material;
• Higher quality toilet facilities;
• Possibilities for imaginative food/drink provision, for example a fridge.
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