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Backyard Birding: Water Gardening for Birds, Pt. 2

Birds and other wildlife need water, as well as food and shelter.Providing sources of water in your yard will not only benefit, but attract wildlife to your yard.

Flat clay pot saucers placed in two or three spots in a garden can become oases for birds, frogs, toads, butterflies, and other small wildlife. A larger container placed on the ground will keep night wanderers such as raccoons and skunks from going thirsty.

Birds love dripping, spraying, splashing and moving water. It can be provided in a number of ways. The simplest is to punch a small
hole in the bottom of a plastic pail and then suspend the pail above a birdbath. The hole will release a constant drip of water into the bath, preferably 20-30 drips per minute ("Gardening How-To," Fall issue, 1999).

Because birds are distracted by their bathing and are slower moving when wet, bird baths are particularly vulnerable to predator attacks. Locate water baths near shrubbery or other cover, but far enough away that a watchful cat won't have easy access to the bird.

The bath should not be too deep or have steep sides. Birds like to wade out to a comfortable depth, usually under three inches. The bottom of the bath should have a rough, rather than porcelain smooth surface so the bird has a good foothold. Keep the bath clean, free of droppings and algae. Plain tap water is fine, with no additives. I drain and refill my bird bath daily.

I've seen two fairly easy methods of building small pools. One is formed by digging a shallow hole, adding chicken wire to the bottom, and then packing stiff concrete mix into the hole. The second uses a flexible plastic liner draped over a sand-lined hole in the ground. A simple waterfall or bamboo waterspout can be added with the use of a small submersible recirculating pump. Either pool need plants and
rocks around the edges. Water fountain suppliers and garden shops sell most of the items you'll need.