water for backyard wildlife

left photo foreground, neal walker's bird house; behind it, gail barton's mississippi sandstone waterer

right photo: a watering bowl discreetly located in quiet shady spot

     before i go any further, the carolina wren photo in my previous post was most likely taken by longtime friend & professional naturalist, beth erwin, from kalorama nature preserve up on the macon ridge in morehouse parish. 

     water is a super-important commodity -- necessity -- for backyard birds, lizards, etc.........depending on where you live, your backyard water source(s) may well be the only easy/decent/dependable source for blocks or miles around. for birds, water is almost as important for plumage maintenance as it is for drinking. for efficient aerodynamics, birds must maintain plumage in dust-free condition. their high metabolic rate demands lots of drinking water as well, particularly in hot, dry weather....................

     smaller songbirds (chickadees, titmice, etc.) need shallow water sources from which to drink and bathe. shallow bowls & baths, placed in quiet, shady spots will do nicely. larger birds, like blue jays, can handle the deeper, more traditional bird baths. you can adapt deeper sources to accomodate smaller birds by placing one or more stout twigs half in and half out of the water, so that they can creep in and out of the water via the twig.

     note: if you've got outdoor cats roaming around your place in the daylight hours, do not use ground-level water sources. i'd even be hesitant to put out elevated bird baths in that circumstance. you don't want to attract birds to your backyard just so cats can prey upon them. we keep 3 cats. we keep them indoors during daylight hours, and let them (those that want to go out) out at night.

     over the years, lydia and i have collected many watering devices.....at least 3 bird baths, six watering bowls (mostly thrown clay beauties), a wall "bracket" bath, etc.........the above left photo features our latest addition: a 200lb native mississippi sandstone waterer, given to us by our longtime pal, mississippi horticulturist, lecturer/writer/designer, gail barton.......a friend of hers hews them out of solid sandstone up in n. mississippi.....................................

     lydia keeps all these watering devices fresh on a daily basis......which brings up another important point: if you don't feel you can maintain one or more watering devices at least on an every-other-day basis, you should not put them out..........at least not a number of them.........understand that once a bird or lizard or toad or whatever comes to a watering device, they will develop a reliance/dependency on the device.....unlike us humans, if a faucet or spigot goes out, we just go to another one and/or fix the old one....that's not a possibility in the animal world........secondly, once they find a dependable water source, animals base an entire routine around that source......they develop safe times and safe routes in order to access that water source.......they know that one slip-up can cost them their lives, and the lives of the young that depend upon them in the spring/summer months...........so it's a "life & death" situation for them, y'understand.