An early garden walk with a camera this morning highlighted something I hadn’t noticed. Oops… and it’s something pretty crucial to wildlife too especially at this busy nesting time. It provides not only water to drink but a place to bathe keeping nesting birds clean – especially the females who spend more time in the nest. The birdbaths have gone dry!
Okay, so wildlife here have the back-up of a pond but most gardens don’t. I should also add that the whole of the UK isn’t having this problem. Rain and winds have seen the wildife presenters of the currently running BBC Two’s Springwatch programme with their coats on and the cameras showing brooding birds soaking wet with the rain showers they have experienced. No dry birdbaths there then :-0
Providing a dish of fresh water for wildlife is easy and quick to do. However, during warm dry spells as we are currently having, these dishes can dry up very quickly – so quickly that you can miss it. Giving the dish a sweep out and wet brush clean (I didn’t use detergents) will save a build-up that could colour the water (not so pretty for the gardener to see). Day 2 – job done!
A ceramic plant saucer can make a great dish for water too. I’ve one placed inside my hedgehog feeding station and see it well used in the evenings by hedgehogs via a night cam. I just need to pull it out to wash and refill it. It’s an easy job too – another tick for Day 2.
A small, unused birdbath top has been recycled as a ground water dish and placed outside a Hedgehog House hidden under the shade of my Leylandii hedge. Hedgehogs pass under my hedge so this is an experiment to attract a female to bring up a family there – now that would be special! That’s three ticks here – recycling, water and a home for wildlife 🙂
Finally, the noise of running water must attract birds – you’d think? I’ve certainly seen it attract newly fledged birds. Oops, I haven’t had the pump on at my small rock pool pond. I’ve reused an old broken roof tile for the water spout. It blends well with the sandstone rocks which were also recycled from a farmer’s field. Pump switched on, another 3 ticks. This #30DaysWild with the Wildlife Trusts could be a realistic challenge for one garden after all – it’s early days though 😉
This post was published by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in June 2016.
All very good advise. I love your hedgehogs. I would be delighted to see some of them here. Of course they aren't native but I have seen them in pet stores. I hate that too. The little fellows should be in their home habitat.
It's the birds that empty our bird baths with all the splashing about.
I hope you get a hedgehog family in your garden!
All good advice, thanks Shirley. If you look at my post yesterday which is a reblog, I'd be really happy if you could spread the word and re-blog it too if you agree with what Julie has written. You have many different readers to me who care about wildlife who I'm sure would want to know about this. Thanks. myhesperidesgarden.wordpress.com/2016/06/02/wildlife-wednesday-a-perfect-storm/
Hello again to you all, thanks for popping by and leaving your comments 🙂
Lisa, it’s pretty obvious I know but I’m always surprised at how quickly birdbaths dry out. I feel so lucky to be seeing hedgehogs on their nightly wanders. I can imagine you would love them too. I agree, on the home habitat of hedgehogs 🙂
Sue, ha-ha – they can do that too 😉
Juliet, that would be fantastic wouldn’t it 🙂
Christina thanks. I was about to go out to our main annual Gardening Show here in Scotland when I followed your link. I had plants in mind to buy knowing I’d see nurseries from other parts of the UK at the show. I only bought 2 plants and the labels were basic. I cannot deny the edge was taken off when I read what Julie and the others said. I’ll come back to this at some point soon. I appreciate you are both passionate about this and that there are impacts to wildlife here and how blogging can spread the word.