Buying a Birdbath

by Annie B. Bond

Adapted from Natural Gardening for Birds by Julie Zickefoose and the Editors and Writers of Bird Watcher's Digest.

Interest in birdbaths and water features in the backyard landscape is growing. Many birders say that it is much more fun to watch birds bathe than it is to watch them sit on a feeder and stuff their beaks.

When shopping for a birdbath, look for three key features:

1. The bathing basin should be less than 3 inches (8 cm) deep—and you should fill it with only 2 inches (5 cm) of water. Most songbirds won’t bathe in water that’s any deeper than that; they prefer to hunker down in a depth that barely reaches the bottoms of their bellies.

2. Make sure the bottom of the bathing basin has a rough surface. Many birdbath bottoms are often too slick to provide secure footing for birds, especially when a coat of algae forms on submerged surfaces. If you can find only a smooth surface basin, rough it up with sandpaper or the claws of a hammer (for plastic basins only!) before filling it with water.

3. Make sure the basin fits securely on the pedestal and won’t be subject to tipping by thirsty dogs, raccoons, deer, or, in wilder reaches, bears. No one wants to pick up an overturned birdbath every morning, and few folks want to replace a broken basin every time in thirsty critter tries to scale the pedestal.

You can search for a one-piece birdbath, or you could use a waterproof adhesive to attach the basin to the pedestal. Also, weight the base or sink it in the ground to minimize tipping over.

Read more nature and wildlife articles by Annie B. Bond.

My personal thoughts on bird baths are to make sure it's something that's easy to clean. Having a rough surface for the birds also gives the bath many crevices to grow and hold on to algae. If you are willing to dump and refill with fresh water every other day, you can scrub the bath quickly with a brush to keep the algae from beginning to form. To be able to maintain your bird bath in this fashion you will want it as close to the house as possible, which makes it more visible for the entertainment also.

We use large saucers sold in the garden center to place under pots. Clay ones are moderately priced (but should be stored away in winter). The birds love bathing in them even though the surface is smooth enough for easy cleaning.

Avoiding Bird and Window Collisions

One hundred million to one billion birds die each year due to collisions with human-built structures across North America alone. It is the reflective and transparent characteristics of glass that make windows invisible killers. Birds see the tree reflected in a window, or the plant behind the window, not the glass itself. To stop these collisions one must make glass visible to birds.

Here's one option: A unique window film dubbed CollidEscape which is presently used for commercial and retail advertising on glass will protect birds and allow you to enjoy the great outdoors from inside. This film adheres to the exterior surface of a window. Thousands of small perforations in this covering allow ample light to pass through the window to the interior, while substantially reducing the window's exterior reflectivity and transparency, the two characteristics that cause birds to collide with windows.

Get more info on CollidEscape.

Preserving The Color of Fall Leaves

©Photo Property of Donna L. Watkins
By Annie B. Bond, executive producer
Care2’s Healthy Living Content

My mother had a trick she used to preserve the color in fall foliage leaves, and I have since seen this technique suggested in old folk formula books. It really works, and the leaves stay on the branches and keep their color for weeks. I'm happy to share this tip, and use it myself. Here is her secret:

All you need is a little bit of vegetable glycerin, water, and newly cut branches with colorful leaves. Just put about 1/2 a teaspoon into a vase full of water, stir, and then add the branches. With this, the leaves stay on the branches and keep their color for weeks. Refresh the water and glycerin every week. Pure vegetable glycerin is available in health food stores.

Donna's Comment:
I found vegetable glycerin at a local pharmacy.

Importance of Dead Trees

© 2008 Donna L. Watkins - Young Pileated Woodpeckers Waiting For Next Feeding

Standing dead trees, called snags, provide birds and mammals with shelter to raise young and raptors with unobstructed vantage points.

Over 500 species of birds, 300 species of mammals, and 400 species of amphibians and reptiles benefit from snags for food, nesting, or shelter.

Only 30 species of birds are capable of making their own nest cavities in trees. Another 80 animal species depend upon previously excavated or natural tree holes for their nests.

The insulation of a tree trunk home allows many animal species to survive high summer and low winter temperature extremes.

Tree cavities and loose bark are used by many animals to store their food supplies.

Insects living in dead wood eat thousands of forest pests which can harm living trees.

Fish and amphibians hide under trees that have fallen into the water.

Woodpeckers and creepers feast on the wood-eating insects and provide "sawdust" for ants to process. Deer eat the lichen growing on the trunks.

There's a literal world of life evolving in and around dead trees. Don't remove your dead trees unless absolutely necessary. Even then, if one threatens roof damage, you could have it cut off at 14' or higher so it could still be used for nesting and many other uses.

Source: Snag Facts with Impacts, US Forest Service
See more Woodpecker and Bird Photos.

How to Identify Birds

Are you amazed at how quickly birders can identify birds? Actually, it's just like getting to know your human neighbors.

© 2008 Donna L. Watkins - Costa Rica - Blue & Gold Macaw
When you move into a new neighborhood everyone is a stranger, but soon you learn to tell people apart as you unconsciously catalog their characteristics. Their habits, shape, styles of walking, and "habitats" become familiar enough that you can recognize each neighbor immediately, even at a distance.

Paying attention to individual differences can help you identify birds, too. You can recognize many birds simply by noting their shapes, even if seen only in silhouette.

Other useful characteristics are a bird's posture, size (easiest to judge if you use familiar birds as a size reference), flight pattern and/or head-on flight profile, and the kind of habitat in which the bird was seen.

Start by learning to identify general groups of birds- warblers, flycatchers, hawks, owls, wrens- whose members all share certain similarities. As your observation skills improve, familiarize yourself with the field marks- colored or patterned areas on the bird's body, head, and wings- that help distinguish species.

Use the following features to help you:
Silhouette
Field marks
Posture
Size
Flight pattern
Habitat

This information comes from the web site of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Get details on these features at their All About Birds website.

Essential Oils - Nature's Perfume

With the continual bombardment of viral, bacterial, parasitic and fungal contamination in our world, essential oils are a great benefit to help protect our bodies and homes from this onslaught of pathogens.

Essential oils are frequently referred to as the "life force" of plants. Unlike fatty oils, these "essential" oils are volatile, highly concentrated, substances extracted from flowers, leaves, stems, roots, seeds, bark, resin or fruit rinds. Only pure oils contain a full spectrum of compounds that cheap imitations simply cannot duplicate.

Cats enjoy catnip because of the essential oils in it. Ever brushed against rosemary or thyme and had the scent linger on your skin? I love rosemary and rub my hands in it while gardening and then brush it over my face. Refreshes me and I enjoy the smell.

In the winter I cut some to have on my desk and kitchen counter. It brightens the spirit.

There's a world full of bath and beauty products that you can make which not only saves lots of money, but they will not contain any of the chemicals that are in so many of the bath and beauty products. Get more essential oils tips and recipes to blend your own fragrances and natural health solutions.

Assassin Bugs

© 2006 Donna L. Watkins - Assassin Bug
Assassin bugs are considered beneficial insects because they reduce populations of garden pests. There are nearly 3000 species of assassin bugs and they are found throughout most of the world. They earned this name because of the speed at which they grab and poison their prey.

They come in many sizes and colors and most have two pairs of wings. They have sticky pads on the powerful forelegs which are made from thousands of tiny hairs. This keeps their victims from getting away. One thing they all have is a powerful, curved rostrum, or beak.

They feed by external digestion, which means that they push their beak into their victims body and inject a very toxic, or poisonous, liquid that affects the nerves and liquifies the muscles and tissues of their prey. Most other insects that eat like this have two tubes in their beak; one for injecting the fluid and one for sucking in the food, but assassin bugs have only one large tube that does both jobs. This larger tube allows them to inject a larger amount of the toxic digestive fluid so that prey many times their size can be quickly overcome.

Some of them sit and wait for their prey while others hunt for them. Cockroaches die in 3 or 4 seconds and caterpillars more than 400 times the assassin bugs weight can die in only 10 seconds. A feast this size can last for days or even weeks. Predators that attack these bugs include birds and reptiles. Some of the species have developed a defense-mechanism where they use their beak to squirt their venom as far as a foot at the attacker.

The female assassin bug rubs the resin of the camphor plant on her belly to gather a good store of it. Then, when she lays her eggs, she coats them with the resin she gathered. The resin acts like mothballs do for moths - it keeps ants from eating the eggs. What an incredible God of Creation!

© 2006 Donna L. Watkins - Assassin Bug
Most assassin bugs lay their eggs in Fall in cracks and crevices filled with leaves. The eggs hatch the following Spring and the nymphs look a lot like the adults, but are smaller. They will pass through five molts becoming a full-sized adult after the last one. These adults generally Winter over and begin a new generation the following year.

Wheel bugs (the photo shown here) are rather uncommon, but attract attention when found due to their bizarre appearance. The wheel bug is a "monster" of the insect world being a dreaded foe of other insects. It is an assassin bug that stalks its prey traveling around till it finds something.

They are voracious predators, attacking large caterpillars, such as tomato hornworms. They will not bite humans readily, but most of these assassin bugs, if handled carelessly, can inflict a very painful bite, causing a severe reaction for some people.

Their saliva can cause severe irritation of the eyes and nose and even temporary blindness in humans, so it's best to let them do their garden work for you unbothered.