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Heated Bird Baths Make Your Backyard Bird-Ready
It’s here… the first dreaded cold front hit the Southeast making tonight the coldest in Atlanta since last January.The anticipation brings several chores for winterizing; bringing plants inside (when there’s absolutely no room for them), covering outdoor spigots- but first disconnecting the umpteen attachments for misters and birdbath drippers, digging out bird bath heaters stored from last winter and maybe even weatherstripping a few windows because the wind is just howling right now.
And then there’s the birds!
Though they’ve done pretty well at surviving winter on their own- there’s lots you can do to make it a little easier for them. In return they’ll grace your space through long and dreary winter days.
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- Clean and fill all bird feeders with fresh food as last night’s rain (but of course) made for some nasty birdseed. Nobody likes mushy seed.
- Fresh suet if it’s been sitting out for a while. Now’s the time to switch from no-melt warm weather suet to the gooey stuff filled with lard or fat. It’s higher in calories for birds to stay warm overnight.
- Add another suet feeder because so many resident birds partake in cold weather. Check out the easy recipe for bluebird banquet and whip up a batch for the first cold snap! Not just for blues, your chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, warblers, wrens and others love this stuff!
- Nyjer seed should also be replaced if sitting out for more than two weeks or so and if you’ve had substantial rain.
- Bird Bath heaters… just can’t say enough if you want your bluebirds to stick around through winter! We use one heated deck-mount bird bath and 3 separate heaters in other baths around the yard. Fresh water is critical in winter, especially when all natural sources tend to freeze. And it’s the easiest way to attract birds to the yard! Now, when squatting and walking like a duck under the screened porch to plug-in the one heater… be sure to hit your head really hard on the floor of screened porch above- ouch! Nope- we have no picture for that but can promise it literally takes your breath away ;(
- Peanuts and peanut butter are fab winter foods! Mix peanuts with seed on a platform feeder or try peanut butter right on a tree trunk. Warblers, nuthatches, jays and woodpeckers will go for it!
- Winterize birdhouses by first repairing any damage and sealing vents with weather stripping or duct tape. Lots of birds line their roosts with dried pine needles or leaves. Offer wood shavings or nesting materials to help them decorate!
Happy birding and bundle up… it’s cold out there!
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Helping Birds Beyond Bird Feeders
Recently published by Cornell Lab of Ornithology was a pretty amazing and eye-opening article about the disappearance of birds. Audubon was on board way back in in 2013 with “Why Birds Matter” on their cover- and today’s email “Climate Change Pushes Birds to the Brink”. Research by the Journal Science confirms statistics. It’s all quite alarming though meant more as a wake-up call because birds really do tell us about climate.
A link to the article appears at the end of this post and well worth a few minutes to read! Graphics are superior and the comments prove most interesting. In short, here’s 7 easy ways to help birds… beyond the obvious bird feeders. Politics aside- whether you believe in climate change or not, humanity is choking… on plastic, on pesticides, on itself. There’s clear and simple suggestions to do any of these tasks in the article link below.
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- Make Windows Safe
- Keep Cats Indoors
- Plant Native- Reduce Lawns (great website for your zip code)
- Avoid Pesticides
- Switch Coffee to Shade Grown
- Reduce Plastics
- Citizen Science Watch Birds & Share Observations
A few noteworthy fall birding tips:
Leave a hummingbird feeder up even though your guys may have split! The Hummingbird Society strongly recommends this as it’s a total myth your feeders will cause them to stay. Lots of sightings further north (in mid-October) and most of these stragglers are juveniles and females who require calories for southern migration. Most of summer’s nectar producing flowers have since withered. Keep your hummingbird feeder fresh and full.When raking leaves and fallen branches… leave a small pile in the back or corner of your yard. Brush piles offer both forage and shelter for birds.
Clean out birdhouses and repair if necessary. Many of them offer ideal roosting spots for resident birds through winter.
Consider a birdbath heater this year, just add to your existing bath instead of storing it for winter. Always keep fresh water accessible as some birds will never touch your bird feeders or birdhouses!
Copy this URL in your address bar… it’s absolutely worth a look!!
https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/bring-birds-back
Happy Fall Birding!
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When Critters Break a Tall Bird Bath
It’s more often than not, and applies universally to all creatures (including smarty-pants humans). The path of least resistance will be option #1. Yes, there’s even a fun garden plaque stating such!
When feeding backyard birds and/or squirrels, you’re bound to attract a few less desirable furry friends. The masked marvels (raccoons) are hands-down the most destructive of all. Likely due to their curious nature and smarts- they can manage to disrupt bird feeders, tall bird baths, even hummingbird feeders that hang within reach!
Although hummingbird nectar or sugar water has no scent- it’s the shiny hanging thing that piques curiosity. Once the sweet sticky treat is discovered… they’ll be back for more the next evening. Upon seeing your empty feeder which was just filled the day prior, you may be wondering who ate all that food so fast?
Much the same as when you discover the top of your tall bird bath broken on the ground 🙁
To prevent this from happening again, the birdbath is an easy fix since the critters are simply looking for water.
Place a plant saucer on the ground for wildlife and keep it full of fresh water. It just goes back to that path of least resistance! If they don’t have to climb… why bother?
On our deck at home in Atlanta, mom and babies each took turns playing in this bubbling fountain. Luckily it’s on the ground and fairly indestructible! But the glass hummingbird feeders hanging from the deck… not so much!
Having extra feeders out for busy fall migration (five on the back deck alone), the critters were caught red-handed and in the nick of time! We simply moved one feeder to a garden pole with empty bracket, hung one feeder from the hummingbird swing and bought one feeder inside for the night. A little confusing for the tiny sprites in early morning hours… but now they have the routine down pat! Silly person moves our food back to deck for daytime.
As for the broken bath? Place a shallow pan of water on the ground right next to it, or use a tall bird bath that won’t break! These beauties are ideal for year-round use, accepting a heater in winter and large enough for a fountain or water wiggler in summer.
Lastly, should raccoons or squirrels be destroying your seed feeders… use a baffle! For those who insist baffles don’t work? Wrong- they’re just not installed correctly. feeder placement is most important, here’s another post with more detail on baffles.
You can feed birds without the headache or intrusion of other wildlife by using baffles, placing feeders correctly and offering fresh water at ground level 🙂
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