We have been following the disappearing rain news all week. Others are flooding, including southern Arkansas, but we are dry. Two days of rain predicted turned into a tiny bit of rain last night.
I have pictured a fancy birdbath above, and my birdbaths below. Some people build one fancy birdbath and stop at that. They have something to clean and fill, so why would they buy ten of them, or even five?
We are going to be watering for the next month, so I have about 12 birdbaths stationed to catch the extra water.
- Two are under faucets,
- One catches the AC water condensate.
- Quite a few are under the suspended drip hose along the fence.
- The rose garden has two more and the tomatoes have one.
The humble plastic dish above can be bought for $1 or so. Similar items are offered as dishes to catch the water under a flower pot. A container is worth $10 when it is listed as a birthbath, so look for these trays instead.
Our helper dug up a metal pot in the backyard, where one area was likely used as a dump, complete with broken glass. He threw the pot away. I saw another birdbath in the rough, so I placed it under the faucet for washing and filling.
These dishes almost clean themselves and fill all the time from the necessity of watering.
The result is a wide variety of birds using them throughout the day. They have a much greater need for water than for food from us. Most birdfood is the equivalent of Cheetos for birds, and they do not eat much of that for their diets. Experts say the amount is 15% at the most.
But water for bathing is essential and hard to find around here, apart from natural sources. Birds are defined as animals with feathers. Even those evolutionists with Darwin tattoos admit that "feathers are a miracle." They are lightweight and required for flight, but specialized feathers also provide warmth and waterproofing.
The robins who look so puffy in early spring are simply using downy feathers to create a sweater effect, trapping body heat in the air spaces created.
These feathers have to fit together just right to work, so bathing and preening are essential for flight, for life, for comfort and health.
So when I run the Elevated Soaker Hose, 100 feet from the faucet to the end, along the top of the fence, birds gather above and below. For those birds who miss official bath time, dishes catch water on the ground, along the path of the hose.
Grackles crave water, and they dig for pests with their powerful beaks. I hear their rusty hinge call in the trees. In Midland and Phoenix, two types of grackles were quite visible. Now I hear them more than see them, but they are always welcome.
Starlings arrive in flocks, and I want them eating insects and weed seeds in the yard. If you have never seen a murmuration of starlings, your life is not complete. They create mathmatical patterns in the sky that cannot be ignored. I will post one below.
Birds provide endless delight in their habits and songs, but they are also extremely useful in their feeding habits. They need the most meat (insects and grubs) in the spring, when most of them are raising young. Some, like doves will raise numerous broods. But spring, in warming and budding, feeds the baby birds, and the parents rid us of insect plagues.
The
Little House on the Prairie books were written to recall the time when the author lived in Southern Minnesota, not too far from the little Schoolhouse on the Prairie. The locusts came in and ate everything, including blankets thrown on crops to protect them. We saw the location of the
Plum Creek home, and visited a demo sod house there.
I remember grade school teachers saying "We would be up to our knees in insects without the birds eating them."
Doves and starlings also eat seeds. Since most seeds escape the birds by germinating, the rest of the seeds are weed seeds. Why not share some. They know what they need for their diet and they find it.
That another reason for having a variety of plant life in the yard, including a trashy area where big leafy plants and tall grasses grow. Each bird has its own type of feeding and the nesting area. They gladly share with other species of birds, but not with their own kind.
Sassy leaves the birds alone, showing no interest in scaring them into the air. In the rose garden, where robins often patrol, the birds will stay a few feet from me, ducking behind a rose, but not leaving the place where more protein is served birds than anywhere else in NW Arkansas.
Our helper is a little distraught that the birds have torn up our newspaper and mulch decor around the roses. I figure they are eating and picking up nesting material, so I laugh about it.
