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| The Tokens made "In the Jungle" their song, but the hippo and dog are the best performers. |
TV is still using this song in the background. When I walk into the garden in the back, I am in the jungle. The birds are singing and having a go at the feeders, sometimes bathing in the children's swimming pools. If it is quiet and I go to the feeders, the chorus starts up to announce that breakfast is served.
Squirrels see me watching their approach to the feeders. Sometimes the varmints retreat, but they often sit brazenly on top the sunflower seeds in the platform feeder. I have seen squirrels bat the birds away with their front paws, so I chase them away for a moment.
The backyard has everything birds could desire:
- Tall grass for shelter.
- Fresh berries for discerning tastes: blue, black, poke, wild strawberry, elder, beauty, goose, raspberry, etc.
- Trees and bushes for diversity in habitat.
- Perches to serve as a crow's nests for spying bugs.
- Wood mulch and logs to feed and concentrate soil creatures.
- Abundant fresh water, until they bathe.
- Four feeders - platform, finch, suet, and hanging.
- Bugs galore to eat.
- Fresh showers from the Jackson Aqueduct
Modern Marvels - The Jackson Aerial Aqueduct
Soaker-hoses are a good way to water with relatively little waste. I have two outdoor faucets, one in the front and one in the backyard. I use splitters to run two soaker hoses from each faucet, plus one traditional, pesky, kink-prone hose.
Most of the watering is done by turning the water on and switching hoses by a complex system of levers that only I can understand. A special touch is the the soaker-hose run on top of the fence on Mrs. Wright's side. The birds can get a shower this way, which is especially appealing to hummingbirds.
In the dry weather especially, the birdbaths get brown-green from the algae, dirt, and fertilizer which is dumped on grateful plants nearby.
The front soaker-hoses run under the mulch in the rose garden. I no longer know exactly how they run, but the slanted yard sends excess down to the maple tree garden.
In the backyard, ceramic pans for plants catch the soaker hose water, which also cleans them. The ceramic pans provide additional water sources for birds - but especially for toads hydrating in shallow water.
