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Building a Bird Blind

As those of you who follow me on Facebook know, in May of 2022, my husband and I sold our house in town of 25 years and moved out to his family land in the country. The property is a little over 12 acres, situated close to a lake, and far from civilization; although, luckily, we have semi-civilized neighbors. The front half of our property has big, beautiful oaks and open fields covered with local grass (which my sweet husband doesn’t shred during the winter so the wintering birds have a place to hang out). The back half is covered with more oaks, lots of scrub brush, and is perfect for birding, which I have enjoyed for many years. Now that we are living here full time, first on my priority list was to develop a birding area! As this project has progressed, I’ve posted pictures on Facebook and have had several people ask for details, so I thought it would be fun to share the process I went through to develop this area.

NOTE – Although my blind is situated in a rural setting, many of these steps can easily be applied to developing a birding area in a backyard.

GOALS:

  1. Develop a birding location that I can utilize for nature photography.
  2. The blind needs to be designed for either morning or afternoon shooting. This was probably the most challenging aspect of the project as I needed a spot that would work with the angle of the sun. Ideally, when photographing wildlife, you want the sun at your back. I personally prefer shooting in the morning so that helped me decide which direction I needed to have the location facing.
  3. Choose a spot that would not require a lot of clearing as I didn’t want to remove any trees or established shrubs.
  4. Make sure the location would have nice backgrounds. Ideally, I would love the backgrounds to be green bushes providing a nice, colorful bocca. We have people living on both sides of us, so I needed to make sure a house or fence wasn’t in my line of shooting.
  5. Choose a location that would provide cover for wildlife to hangout until they felt safe visiting the blind area; i.e., not in the middle of an open field.

About the author

Cheryl Johnson

Cheryl Johnson

Cheryl wears many hats: she’s a business owner, photographer, and author; but more importantly, she’s a wife, mother, sister, and friend. During the day she runs a boutique advertising agency; in the evenings she puts on her wife and momma hat, enjoying life with her husband, two daughters, and their dog; on the weekends she can often be found with camera in hand, exploring the wilds of nature; and in between all this craziness, she squeezes in some time to sit at her computer to write and design books for children and adults.

“I believe very strongly that you need to follow your passions,” she says. “Everything I’ve ever done, I’ve been very passionate about, although, often, completely unprepared for. My degree is in Religious Studies, yet I ended up in a career in advertising. One day I picked up a camera and decided to take wildlife photos. Several years later, my pictures are winning awards and (shockingly) selling. In 2019 I decided to try my hand at writing a children’s book. The result, ‘My Backyard Bird Book’ was picked up by a publisher and has gone on to sell thousands of copies. I think the biggest lesson I’ve learn on this crazy journey called ‘Life’ is that you can’t be afraid to take chances. Certainly, I’ve failed at many things over the course of my life and career, but I’ve also succeeded at many things, and because I’ve always followed paths that bring me joy, whether I’ve succeeded or failed, I’ve always had the best time!”

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Cheryl Johnson

Cheryl Johnson

P.O. Box 3926
Victoria, Texas 77903

If you would like to see my books or art, please stop by my offices Monday-Friday from 8am-5pm
Outburst Advertising
5003 John Stockbauer, Suite J
Victoria, Texas 77904

(361)574-8844

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