This was my target pose. I had a tree branch in almost that exact angle that would work great. This is also in the same oak tree as the butterflies.

The construction process was totally different from any of the other critters in my yard. For this, I first shaped the chicken wire body and stuffed it with empty plastic containers for filler. I made the arms, legs and tail out of scrap wood and chicken wire. All this work is taking place in my shed/workshop.

Next I hung him by a PVC pipe in the approximate pose he would be in when installed in the tree. I also shoved grocery bags in the cracks for more filler.

I next sprayed a product called "Great Stuff" which is a crack filler that expands. This filled all the cracks and also coated the chicken wire. This also locked in the position of all the extremities so it could be removed from its hanging pose.

Now I could start trimming off the excess filler to smooth it out and add more to fill in some of the small gaps. This took several days waiting for the spray filler to dry each time.

Here it is all filled out and smoothed to the shape I wanted. The hands and taill will look like they are the only things holding Lincoln up, but you can see wires at the tips that will wrap around the tree and fasten to the appendage on the other side. These will keep him from blowing off the branch in the wind. The final step is painting.

The filler material is very paintable and has held up well. There has been one issue that has caused problems though. Woodpeckers. They keep pecking holes in Lincoln. I keep filling and repaiting but it was a losing battle for quite a while. Fortunately, they did eventually stop.

This view shows his installed location.