Bird Baths

Dear Superior Eagle,

I have a child's tipper truck in the garden(forgotten after a visit). It sits in a corner of the patio, near some bushes and is filled only by the rain. Our sparrows and blackbirds love to bathe in it, and it once tipped over when a wood pigeon tried to get in! Maybe the birds feel exposed and would welcome a little cover close at hand? Or maybe they just wait until you aren't looking!!!

Good luck

Hi  SE ,I have 5 and the birds love them , especially when the weather is real cold or dry.

It is also down to the area and what is available elsewhere too.

Maybe they are coming and you just don't see them.

Sorry i can't help.

 

 

 

ClaireM said:

Same here, SE.  The birds drink from puddles and my cat and dog drink from the pedestal birdbath. :) - They do have their own water bowls!

I've just bought a bird bath - the birds (and the dog!) usually use the upturned patio table which will be getting thrown out soon so hopefully they will start using their new birdbath instead!  Tai will be disappointed though as she loves drinking that mucky water!  I don't know why she has a waterbowl, she certainly seems to prefer mucky puddle water!

If it's tap water, the animals may not use it until it's sat for a few days and "matured".

I know that our dogs, horses and neighbours cattle don't like to drink water that's come straight from the tap. It's got additives in it, it's not natural. Probably why dogs, birds etc seem to prefer "dirty puddles"!

Sorry, but it's the only thing I can think of.

Frank

 

Dulaich said:

If it's tap water, the animals may not use it until it's sat for a few days and "matured".

I know that our dogs, horses and neighbours cattle don't like to drink water that's come straight from the tap. It's got additives in it, it's not natural. Probably why dogs, birds etc seem to prefer "dirty puddles"!

Sorry, but it's the only thing I can think of.

Frank

 

I think you're right. I've been diligently changing the birdbath water every morning since I saw a sick bird in my garden and I notice it gets fewer customers, they're now using the shallow end of the pond. My dog certainly prefers a pond, stream or puddle to his bowl.

 

Ditto my dog!  Just been for a two hour walk (!), during which she drank from streams andpuddles; when she came back was she interested in the clean water in her bowl?  Nope!  She went out to the pond and had a good drink.  So there is probably something about dirty water.......................

I always fill mine from the water butt.

I have an assortment of bird baths 3 at the top of the garden a pedestal one a paint roller container and a large green plastic bowl type with a wide lip all are emptied every morning and filled from the tap and all get used pretty quickly both for drinking and bathing. I have seen in fact yesterday morning a little Blue Tit on the edge of the Pedastal one jumping in and out of it over and over then flying up into a shrub to start preening.

On the patio we have an old dog dish which several Blackbirds use often have 10 - 12 in the garden even now with breeding time coming up. I have noticed that one will just dip the tip of her beak in the water and put her head back to drink another will put the whole of his beak in and a third wont drink out of the dish but will drink where it has overflowed and made a puddle.

Im sorry it doesnt answer your question but it goes to show what crazy creatures we all have flying around our gardens :-)

Hope you get more visitors to your bird bath because there is so much fun watching them as they play in water.

 Chris S.

Hi Superior Eagle, and all other contributors to this thread.  We're all cautious about stagnant water and its attendant risks, but here's something I heard years ago, first observed by a cattle farmer.  The water in the drinking trough seemed to get purified by the strands of hay dropped in it by the cows.  I buy guinea-pig hay and use it in the bird bath in the summer.  A weekly clean-out without chemical disinfectant and everyone seems to be happy.  Mosquito population down.  Anyone else tried this?

I once had a colony of bluetits, and a lawn large enough to need a travelling sprinkler - one of those that shoot a fan-shaped spray.  In hot dry weather the birds had more fun with the sprinkler than the kids had, shrieking with pleasure and weaving in and out.  The pedestal bath was a very poor second.

Best of luck Eagle

Papillon