Building a goose weathervane for pond

[Mike N]

A few years ago I saw this great goose weathervane in a book on cabins and decided to replicate it to put on my pond dock.

The original inspiration:


First, I laid out and cut the goose outline from 1/4” plywood:


Then started assembly:


Then I carved out the head with a draw knife:

[Mike N]

Added some black and white spray paint to the head and body:






Cut a piece of pipe to mount it on:

[Mike N]

Installed it on the pond dock 5 years ago. It did attract a few geese (second photo).

These photos are 5 years old. I’ll update with some current photos as it looks now after all these summers and winters. It still spins in a good wind but probably time to take it down for some WD-40 and re-paint.

[john elder]

Nice, Mike! Marine plywood? I suppose the trick is to get the edges watertight to keep it from splaying over time.

[Paul Roberts]

Nicely done, Mike. Love the Canada goose theme.

[Mike N]

To answer John’s question, I did not use marine plywood nor specially caulk or seal the edges. After 5 years here are two photos I took this evening. The spacers seem to have prevented any significant delaminating, but the weather has faded the simple spray paint I used.




Here are a couple other rustic items I put up over the years along the gravel pond road: