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Destroyed by fire, popular Lake Fayetteville bird blind to be restored

A duck's-eye view of the original Paige and Mary Bess Mulhollan Waterfowl Observation Blind constructed in 2016.
Courtesy
/
Michael Cockram
A duck's-eye view of the original Paige and Mary Bess Mulhollan Waterfowl Observation Blind constructed in 2016.

A small group of devoted birders veer off Lake Fayetteville Trail this chill sunny afternoon, crossing a riparian boardwalk onto a lakeside forest path to where a quaint hand-built cedar bird blind once stood. A thick layer of burnt wood char and stray chunks of black molten glass litter the snowy, muddy ground.

The Paige and Mary Bess Mulhollan Waterfowl Observation Blind was first approved in 2014 by Fayetteville Parks and Recreation authorities and constructed two years later with expert guidance and lots of volunteer help.

"I'm very proud that this was done in honor of my folks," said Kelly Mulhollan. "My mom and dad were very avid birders."

And so is Mulhollan, who, along with a group of core volunteers, helped design, build and later maintain the popular bird blind — until it inexplicably burned to the ground late last August.

Only concrete piers remain after intense fire incinerated the hand-built bird blind late last summer.
J.Froelich
/
KUAF
Only concrete piers remain after intense fire incinerated the hand-built bird blind late last summer.

"Someone across the lake from the blind saw the inferno in the night around 10 p.m.," he said, "and called the fire department. I didn't hear about it until I got an e-mail the next morning from Allison Jumper who's the director of Parks and Recreation. It was just a shock."

Mulhollan, his spouse Donna, along with biologist and nationally-known Arkansas bird expert Joe Neal, rushed to the site to assess the damage.

"We got here, and the fire department was still here and so they apparently had been working all night. And thanks to them, you know, the whole woods were not burned down. But the structure was a complete loss. Except for the foundation."

City officials investigated, but the cause of the fire was never determined. Nor was the $17,000 dollar structure insured. The 100-square-foot elongated hexagonal bird blind was built with locally sourced cedar wood planks and treated timbers mounted on a raised platform. The cozy interior was filled with horizontal viewing ports and bench seating sized for both adults and kids to surveil all sorts of birds that flock to this lake through the seasons.

Birders crowd the Mulhollan Blind during a field trip on Lake Fayetteville in late April of 2018.
Courtesy
/
Joe Neal
Birders crowd the Mulhollan Blind during a field trip on Lake Fayetteville in late April of 2018.

Mulhollan said the bird blind had never been vandalized, aside from minor outbreaks of graffiti, which he would repair with a wood sander. In fact, he says, birders who frequented the site routinely swept the little building and kept things in order. And in the early days, he kept a visitors log, which he brought along to show.

"We'll never know how many people visited the blind," he said, carefully opening up the logbook, "because we didn't have any way to keep track of that. But a lot of people took it seriously, including me. I'd come here and I'd list everything I saw, and how many I saw, and I have all those pages to this day."

A watercolor rendering of the new bird blind by architectural designer Michael Cockram.
Courtesy
/
M.Cockram
A conceptual watercolor rendering of the original bird blind created by architectural designer Michael Cockram in 2014.

Mulhollan said the reaction to the bird blind's destruction was swift.

"The outpouring of people upset about the fire showed me that bird watchers were only a very small part of the people who visited the blind and valued the blind. I think far more people were walkers, bikers, runners -- everybody who passed this trail around the lake, that was part of their routine."

With many stepping into the little bird blind for a few moments to peer out over the lake hoping to catch views of wildlife through the seasons.

But to everyone's surprise, many immediately stepped forward with donations, Mulhollan said.

"We got phone calls, we got emails and within two days we got a check, our first check and we had not even made a plea for money," Mulhollan said. "And it was a substantial check from somebody saying we want the bird blind rebuilt. And then the checks kept coming."

Twenty major donors, he said, most notably the Don Nelms and Millie Nelms Foundation.

"This took us by surprise," Mulhollan said. "When Joe and I and Donna stood out here on the morning after the fire, it felt like we maybe could just put a wooden platform up and that would be better than nothing."

Kelly Mulhollan, Mary Bess Mulhollan, Bob Caulk, Mayor Lioneld Jordon, Joe Neal, Paige Mulhollan, Michael Cockram, and Donna Mulhollan pose in front of the newly constructed Mulhollan Bird Blind on dedication day in the summer of 2016.
Courtesy
/
Kelly Mulhollan
Dedication Day - Kelly Mulhollan, Mary Bess Mulhollan, Bob Caulk, then-Mayor Lioneld Jordon, Joe Neal, Paige Mulhollan, Michael Cockran, Donna Mulhollan

Resources are now in hand, he said, to rebuild the blind. The original bird blind, expected to stand for a good 75 years, was created by local architectural designer Michael Cockram of Bowerbird Designs.

"I was heartbroken," Cockram said after learning about the fire. "It was probably my favorite project. It was a project I could visit and use often."

Although initially, he said he was not interested in bird watching.

"I was not," he said, laughing. "But being around Kelly, Joe Neal, and on the blind committee, I started getting the interest in birding and then I just really got addicted."

Bird experts, and blind consultants, David Chapman and David Oakley enjoying Mulhollan Blind in October of 2018.
Courtesy
/
Joe Neal
Bird experts, and blind consultants, David Chapman and David Oakley photgraphed enjoying Mulhollan Blind in October of 2018.

Cockram was asked to design a new blind.

"With pleasure," he said, grinning.

And just at that moment? A huge flock of Canadian Geese flew in formation overhead, seemingly honking approval.

The reorganized blind committee, Cockram said, first sought community comment on the rebuild.

Michael Cockram's rendering of the new Mulhollan Blind.
J.Froelich
/
KUAF
Michael Cockram's rendering for the new Mulhollan Blind.

"Yes, we got a lot of feedback. And it was very valuable. One of the main things was security."

The original structure was mostly enclosed. The new blind design will be more open-air, with the addition of a new wood-screened outdoor viewing deck. Cockram said special ports will be installed for wildlife photographers. The front of the structure along the lake's edge will be fully enclosed, aside from viewing ports, with high wooden fencing extending from either side along the shore to hide human activity.

While both blinds are designed to withstand lake flooding, which fluctuates, Cockram said, the new blind will withstand fire.

"The basic framing is fire resistant lumber," he said. "And Class A fire resistant composite decking, a metal roof, and then the siding is cement board which is not combustible."

For added security, a motion-detecting camera will be discreetly installed on site. The estimated cost for the new bird blind, Cockram said, will be around $20,000. Reconstruction starts next month and is scheduled for completion in May.

Two other bird blinds, one built on Northwest Arkansas Land Trust's Wilson Springs Nature Preserve in west Fayetteville and another on Siloam Springs City Lake Park, attract lots of birders too.

Joe Woolbright, director of Ozark Ecological Restoration, installed a new bird watching habitat on Siloam Springs City Lake Park in the summer of 2021.
J.Froelich
/
KUAF
Joe Woolbright, director of Ozark Ecological Restoration, installed this new bird watching blind on Siloam Springs City Lake Park in the summer of 2021.

 

"But what makes Lake Fayetteville so rich from a birding perspective is the variety," said Taylor Long, vice president of Northwest Arkansas Audubon Society.

"This park has mature forests, open fields, prairies, and of course the lake," he said. "So you get resident birds that are here all year long, including titmice, chickadees, and woodpeckers. We've also got birds that breed here in the summertime — indigo buntings are very abundant all around the lake. We even see painted buntings up from the prairie in the corner of the park. And then on top of all that you've got all the transient migrants that are coming through and spotting this big body of water to stop on during their long journey."

Taylor Long is also a remote User Interface Designer for Cornell Lab of Ornithology, headquartered in Ithaca, New York, which offers a free online guide to birds and bird watching. And he's a co-developer of the lab's eBird database.

"eBird is a global database of bird sightings. So birders can submit information about birds that they've seen into this big database and that's used to power science and conservation around the world."

Birdwatchers who frequent Lake Fayetteville and this bird blind routinely submit data to eBird, including Taylor Long. He brought along his spotting scope today, counting 276 individuals, 22 species observed, submitting the data to his personal eBird checklist. Cited are an array of ducks, geese and vultures, a kingfisher, Carolina wren, and more.

"Over time we've recorded at least 160 species of birds from the blind," Taylor said. "It's probably 150 different observers on eBird that have submitted that. But [from Lake Fayetteville] we've had more than 300 people submit data for birds, including 250 species. The lake as a whole has a wide variety of bird species, many of which can be observed from the blind, but the whole place is a very dynamic park in terms of habitat and what it offers to birders."

Due to an abundance of documented bird species, Lake Fayetteville has been designated on eBird as a northwest Arkansas hot spot for bird watching.

Taylor Long, center, stands with Kelly and Donna Mulhollan and Michael Cockram on Mulhollan Bird Blind burn site.
J.Froelich
/
KUAF
Taylor Long, center, stands with Kelly and Donna Mulhollan and Michael Cockram, on the grounds of the former Mulhollan Bird Blind.

"And in the winter, which is really duck season in northwest Arkansas, Lake Fayetteville is kind of unique in that it's a city park so there's no hunting around the lake," Taylor said. "On many of the other lakes there are hunters, guns going off, and it seems at this time of year ducks manage to find their way to Lake Fayetteville as a refuge."

American Coots, which summer in the northern U.S., migrate south in winter, including to Lake Fayetteville.
Courtesy
/
Joe Neal
These American Coots, which summer in Canada and the northern U.S., have migrated to Lake Fayetteville for the winter..

On this cold winter day, rafts of ducks float peacefully on the lake, observed by a stream of visitors who continue to come to this charred site, a testament to the enduring popularity of the Paige and Mary Bess Mulhollan Waterfowl Observation Blind.

To learn more about the history and current status of the Paige and Mary Bess Mulhollan Waterfowl Observation Blind, visit this link hosted by the Northwest Arkansas Audubon Society.

To support additional reconstruction costs of the Mulhollan Bird Blind, as well as planned public educational programming, a tax-deductible donation portal can be found here.

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Jacqueline Froelich is an investigative reporter and news producer for <i>Ozarks at Large.</i>
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