THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 26, 1997 TAG: 9701240207
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: 101 lines
SEVERAL HUNDRED BIRDS, dozens of squirrels, raccoons, deer, opossums, fox, bats and about anything else covered in fur or feathers love to visit Paul Daily's place.
Daily, a robust 84-year-old, maintains his yard and two wooded lots for animals. He doesn't try to impress neighbors or convenience himself.
``People think I've got a messy back yard,'' Daily said, standing on his back patio within sight of a dozen bird houses and feeders. ``But you know the birds. They like it this way. Keep it all neat and clean, and they don't come.''
Daily spends a large chunk of his budget buying big bags of suet and sunflower seeds for juncos, goldfinches, warblers and nearly 50 other species. His daily guests leave a large mess of seed hulls scattered near his patio. When he runs out of suet, he smears a wad of peanut butter on a large pine tree in his yard.
The birds love it.
Daily throws fallen limbs and yard scraps into a pile in the lot beside his house and leaves it there. It's not pretty. But it makes a great avian hideout.
A wooden brace on a homemade bird feeder has never seen paint. Green fungus-looking stuff called lichen grows on it. Daily lets it grow. Hummingbirds love to use the lichen to line their nests.
A scraggly holly tree is not a landscaping jewel. But it produces fat, red berries - good winter food for beaked ones.
Not that Daily's 1.5 acres are really that junky. The yard is just cluttered a little with bird feeders, bird houses, an old vacant bat box, a couple of air rifle targets and a few remnants from some of his metalworking projects.
Two of his most visible creations are aluminum purple martin houses sitting on poles about 15 feet in the air.
One is made from half of a hot water heater. The bottom of it is part of an old stop sign. The familiar octagon shape makes the perfect first floor of a purple martin condominium. The other house he made from pieces and scraps he found at a local junk yard.
Daily made a bird feeder with fins from scrap aluminum. The fins automatically turn the feeder away from the wind so the birds always have a warm, dry place to eat. Great idea. Asked if he has applied for a patent, he just shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head ``no.''
His other feeders are ordinary old bleach bottles or cake pans - primitive creations, but still effective.
``I don't get those fancy feeders,'' said Daily. ``The birds don't know any difference.''
Daily's back yard also has served as a small weather laboratory since 1981. Every day at 5 p.m., he checks his gauges for soil temperature, air temperature and rainfall. The report goes to N.C. State University and to the local agricultural extension office.
``Paul Daily epitomizes old American values,'' said Tom Campbell, a Pasquotank County agriculture extension agent. ``He doesn't throw things away. He makes do with what he has.''
Campbell takes people to Daily's yard occasionally to show them the elderly man's knack for attracting wildlife - and to showcase his gardening skills.
``He has a great deal of experience in a lot of things,'' Campbell said of Daily. ``I've enjoyed knowing him.''
Among other occupations too many to mention, Daily has been lumberjack, a metal tool maker, an avid hunter with bow and gun, and an incurable collector of other people's castaways. His garage is full of repaired and cleaned exercise machines, bicycles, tools, clothing and appliances.
In an extra bedroom, he keeps hundreds of stuffed animals he found in a dumpster. He doesn't say where - not publicly anyway. Most are like new. He gives them to needy children.
Daily moved to Elizabeth City from Michigan with his wife in 1972 because he wanted to be closer to the good fishing at the Outer Banks. He's been a widower a few years now. And his children live away. The wildlife that come around are his children of sorts. Some, he said, even misbehave.
The squirrels eat all his pecans, chew up his bird feeders and munch his paws paws, kiwi fruit and grapes.
``You can't keep the squirrels out,'' Daily said, dismissing the problem with a wave of his hand. ``They'll find a way.''
He has never cleared the two additional lots beside his Forest Park brick home. That's where deer and raccoon roam, and the fox and opossum play. The vacant lots, however, are a small consolation for the 240 acres of forest he owned in Michigan where he hunted and enjoyed the wildlife.
``Oh, I've been outdoors since I was this high,'' Daily said, holding his hand about to his waist. ``Yes, that's been my hobby all of my life.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos including color cover by DREW C. WILSON
A cardinal alights on one of Paul Daily's many birdfeeders.
A titmouse finds a perch on a grape vine in Paul Daily's back yard.
Paul Daily made this bird feeder, which turns away from the wind
automatically so the birds always have a warm, dry place to eat.
Daily keeps a list of the types of birds that visit the area around
this home.
Every day since 1981 at 5 p.m., Daily checks his gauges for soil
temperature, air temperature and rainfall.