Duck Blinds in Tivoli Bay

Transcription

1 Duck Blinds in Tivoli Bay Photographs by Esther Kiviat Tivoli Bays, not long ago taken under the wing of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the present location of Bard College Field Station, is a fragile ecological region created by the construction of the railroad embankment across the mouth of the Sawkill on the South and Stony Creek on the North. The semi enclosed areas (there are passes to the river to allow for the flow of the creeks and of the tides) have created special habitats. Tivoli North Bay has for the most part silted in and is a network of channels and marsh, a prime habitat for snapping turtles and muskrats. Tivoli South Bay is still mostly open, its tranquil wa ters a rich feeding ground which attracts ducks and other waterfowl and, naturally, duck hunters. The Bays for a long time have been "inhabited" by duck blinds, a species vanishing along with the ducks they are set up to hunt. These photographs of Esther Kiviat, known for her photographs of the Hudson Valley and of the American Southwest, will help preserve their image. Esther Kiviat has described them in this way: They are fashioned of old doors and shutters and posts, odds and ends of lumber and plywood, tattered tarpaper and chicken wire. Most are built on stilts to raise the floor above high tide. Some are sparingly furnished with a bench, deck chair, an old car seat, and have full or Duck Blinds in Tivoli Bay 43

2 partial roofs. Many have been long abandoned, but others bear evidence of recent use: dried stalks of purple loosestrife, cattail, or common reed (Phragmites), used for camouflage, cling to the chicken wire; styrofoam cups, plastic jugs, soda and beer cans, and old plas tic tarps litter the floors and the surrounding area. Blinds may las t only a year or two; some, refurbished and repaired every year or two, may endure for decades. The Duck Blinds are not environmentally benign; they do provide shelter for a variety of animals in wintty weather, but in their construction the muddy bottom is sufficiently trampled to make it a welcome location to the beautiful but nefarious purple loosestrife and to various reeds, all of which compete with the native cattails that provide food and nesting for a variety of inhabitants. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation took over the Bays in 1979 and they are now a part of the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve. According to new regulations, no new blinds may be constructed, though old blinds may be used and they may be maintai ned. As the population of ducks decline, fewer hunters will come to Tivoli Bays and the duck blinds will, as Esther Kiviat says, "stand among the cattails and loosestrife until wind and tide topple them into the mud." -W.W. 44 The Hudson Valley Regional Review

3 Duck Blinds in Tivoli Bay 45

4 46 The Hudson Valley Regional Review

5 Duck Blinds in Tivoli Bay 47

6 48 The Hudson Va lley Regional Re.iew (

7 Duck Blinds in Tivoli Bay 49

8 50 The Hudson Valley Regional Review

9 Captions I. Viewed across a North Bay mudflat at low tide, a duck hunter's blind is dwarfed against a picturesque background of cattails, upland trees, and the misty grey Catskills 40 miles distant across the Hudson River. 2. This architectural curiosity, patched together from faded green shutters and sheets of plywood, is perched precariously on a mud bank on the edge of a North Bay tide channel. 3. A picturesque blind, constructed of slats, its flooring disintegrating in the water, stands among the cattails of Tivoli North Bay. At its back are the softl y-rounded peaks of the Catskill Mountains. 4. A heavy camouflage cover of common reed (Phragmites) almost obscures this well-kept duck hunter's blind in Tivoli North Bay. 5. A neatly-built structure of wide boards, obviously kept in good repair, is partially hidden behind a curtain of cattails in Tivoli North Bay. 6. This well -constructed and camoflaged blind on the Stony Creeek tide channel at the eastern edge of North Bay is accessible on foot at low tide. Duck Blinds in Tivoli Bay 51