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I was doing a little cleaning up yesterday and ran across a nice little pamphlet I got when I subscribed to “Birds and Blooms” eons ago. It is called “Birdscaping Handbook-Easy Steps for Attracting Your Favorite Birds”. There is a lot of practical information to be found in this little publication. I am going to touch on providing water today.

My Grandma had a birdbath. It was in the corner of the yard by the flagpole. I can remember her filling it with a blue plastic pitcher from the house. She would fill it every day in the warm months. I wonder what the winter birds did? I am sure they would drink out of the hog water tanks when they could and probably from the creek, too. I am not sure how are where they accomplished their bathing. To provide a winter watering hole for the birds back then was tricky. There were no heated bird baths or tank heaters. However, in today’s world those things do exist! So keep the water flowing by using a heated pet water dish or a fancy heated bird bath or bowl. Rachel’s Robin has a full line of products to keep water open during the cold months. In fact, you can even keep your backyard pond free of ice. We feed the birds year round and we should really consider watering them year round, too.

So far I have focused on keeping water open in the winter. I guess that is because we got another 3/4″ of snow last night. But what about where to place a bird bath. Not all birds are comfortable bathing from the same location. I did not know that. Larger, bolder birds such as robins and blue jays like to bathe in open sunny places. Smaller, shy birds like warblers and thrushes prefer a shady spot that is near cover. To accommodate both bathing styles, try putting your bath where there is cover nearby. If that doesn’t work, you may need to provide more than one bath.

Remember that birds don’t care how pretty the bath is. It only has to serve their purpose. So be creative! You may have some items stuck in a garage or shed that can be used to keep you feathered friends happy and clean.