My father loved the outdoors and was also a master tinsmith. He worked at the former Western Electric and later began a sheet metal business in Lehighton. He worked wonders with sheet metal, aluminum, copper and even stainless steel. I often helped him in his shop after school or weekends. Even his wood working skills were great. Unfortunately, I’m not a tinsmith or much of a carpenter. At least he passed on one of his skills. I love nature.

Nature has many master builders, and those innate abilities are passed on from generation to generation. I bet the first “master building animal” you thought of was the beaver. I am amazed at what they are able to do without a chain saw, cement mixer, backhoe or transit.

Beavers build dams for one principal reason. The dam creates a body of water deep enough for them to construct a lodge with underwater entrances for rearing young, shelter and protection from predators. When beavers find a relatively small stream, an advantageous location is selected where the dam doesn’t have to be too long. They cut saplings, drag limbs, find weeds and grasses, gather mud, and even move stones in place to build the breast.

The dams that remain in place for years will flood out a section of a forest, killing the trees. Years later, forest clearings develop, providing crucial habitats for many different plants and animals. Farmers or golf course managers, of course, would not be pleased if these rodents chose a culvert to build their dam, flooding crops or their golf course.

In larger streams or slow moving rivers, beavers can excavate their dens in the stream bank and won’t need to build a dam. Late last summer I located a beaver dam on Lizard Creek. I don’t think it took more than 8 or 10 days to complete. That dam remained intact until the 2 plus inches of rain from a recent storm quickly raised the stream level with tons of ice chunks crashing through it. Upon last week’s inspection, I could barely determine where the dam existed. Time will tell if they will rebuild it.

Birds are also craftsmen. Cliff swallows build mud nests, carrying beakful after beakful of mud pellets to their chosen location. One nest may take 1,200 to 1,500 trips to complete. Baltimore orioles build suspended nests using strips of vines or scavenged pieces of string and place them in forks of trees. They are usually crafted on thin branches near the top of trees to discourage nest raiders like raccoons. This project could take two weeks to complete.

Some insects are seasoned builders. The bald-faced hornet queen begins the nest after chewing some bark, mixes it with a saliva mixture in her mouth and builds a “paper” nest. It initially is golf ball in size, but after the first young emerge, they all “chew” and the nest grows. By summer’s end it could be larger than a basketball.

Mud dauber wasps do much of the same as cliff swallows but their muddy nest tubes are much smaller. Paper wasp nests, common under a building’s eaves, are constructed by much of the same process as the hornet. No matter, they are tireless builders, all done to perpetuate the species. These construction abilities are instinctual. A cliff swallow, for example, never watched his father the “tinsmith” master his trade. Get out there and look for these “master builders.”

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: true/false A bald-faced hornet’s nest is used year after year.

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: Barn owls, probably no longer present in our region, typically nest in barns and abandoned structures.

Note: Bluebirds have been pairing up for the last week or two, if you haven’t already spruced up your nesting boxes, now is the time.

Contact Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com.