Inviting Wildlife to Your Garden
Birds in your Backyard
Related Websites: Attracting Hummingbirds ... Feeding Wild Birds ... Gardening to Attract Birds ... Gardening in an Environmentally Friendly Way - Chemicals and toxins in our environment hurt wildlife and us. ... Hand-taming Wild Birds ... Helping Wild Bird Chicks
There is nothing more delightful than watching wild birds roam your garden, providing you with an opportunity to watch them and enjoy their songs. The below will give you guidelines as how to achieve that. However, if you really want to set an goal, please consider creating and having your backyard certified as Backyard Habitat.
The following will help you attract the wildlife of your choice:
- Food / Feeding Wild Birds - Feeders & Food Selection Designed to Attract Birds
- Water: Birds need fresh water for drinking as well as bathing. Even the sound of running water will attract birds. Bird baths are fine -- but water fountains are preferable, as birds love the sound of water, and it encourages breeding.
Alternatively, if you want a water source that requires more up front work but less daily upkeep, consider a pond. Start with a simple design and gradually make it complex. Click here for instructions to build one yourself.
- Clean Water Only: The key to having a successful bird bath is to change the water at least every other day. This keeps the water fresh and ensures mosquitoes do not use the water. Every few days you should empty the bath, scrub it with a stiff brush, and rinse it well. Although some people recommend cleaning them with a bleach solution, we have found that isn't necessary (besides being harmful to the environment!). If you must clean it with something, try a water and white vinegar solution or hot soapy water. Please note that the water needs to be kept clean. Dirty water will make the wild birds sick. I found a realy good way to keep water clean is to add a few drops of GSE to the water. It is inexpensive and lasts for a long time. Living in Florida (a humid / hot climate) I had a problem with mold and algea growing in my bird bath. I cleaned it as good as I could, but some of the stains didn't seem to want to come out. I added a few drops of GSE to the clean drinking water and within a few days the bird bath was immaculate. Of course, the water should be changed every day or at least every other day and new GSE needs to be added.
- What kind of Birth Bath is Best: The bird bath should be no deeper than three inches at the center. It should be even shallower at the edge, so that a bird can ease its way in. Many commercial birdbaths are too deep. If you already own a deep birdbath, you can put rocks in it to raise the bottom, though this will make it a little harder to keep clean.
- The Sound of Water is Inviting to our Birds. The sound of falling water is pure invitation to birds, dramatically increasing the number of species that visit a birdbath - whether it is a water fountain or simply dripping water. For example, hummingbirds would never wade into the bath like other birds, because they bathe only in flight. But I have watched hummers zipping back and forth through the drips, timing their flights so that they catch a water drop on their backs on each pass. There are many ways to arrange for a drip. You can run a hose so that it trickles into the water; or install a small spray fountain designed for birdbaths; or suspend above the bath a bucket that has a 1/2-inch hole in the bottom with a bit of cloth stuffed through the hole as a wick. If you like an elegant-looking birdbath, you can even purchase one that has a dripper built in, as shown at right.
- Rough bottomed. Birds don't want to lose their footing, and they will hesitate to use a bath with a glazed, slippery bottom. Cement is good. If you already possess a slick birdbath, you can apply the non-skid stickers that are sold for people-baths.
- Location!
Protect the Visiting Birds! Cats like to lie in wait beneath shrubbery or behind a concealing object and then pounce on the birds when they're wet and can't fly well. So put your birdbath at least five to ten feet from such hiding places. Give the birds a chance to see the cat coming.
With an escape route. The ideal location is under some branches that hang down within two or three feet of the bath. A wet bird can flutter a few feet up to the safety of the leaves.
On a pedestal. It's easy to see from the house, easy to clean, and safer from predators. Alternatively, you can buy a birdbath designed to hang from a tree.
Within reach of a hose. Make your birdbath easy to clean and refill. But locate your birdbath away from your feeding station, because seeds and droppings would soil the water quickly. Change the water every few days, or even every day in hot weather. Dump it out or squirt it out with the hose. I keep a scrub brush outside with my gardening tools, so that I can brush out any algae that begins to form.
In view from a window. Place the birdbath where you can see it from indoors.
- Cover and Places to Raise Young. Wildlife need a place to hide in order to feel safe in your yard. They also need a more long-term shelter to raise their young. The easiest ways to provide cover is to use existing vegetation, dead and alive. Many shrubs provide great hiding places within their bushy leaves, and dead trees are home to lots of different wildlife. You can also construct hiding places using logs, brush or rocks. Another popular way to provide cover is to put up a nesting box for birds to raise their young. Depending on what types of birds come to your area, you would provide the right kind of nesting box.
- Kids enjoy making something called a “toad abode.” To make one, get a medium-size clay pot and saucer. Put the saucer on the ground and keep it filled with water. Nearby, put the pot upside-down with an edge resting on a rock. That makes room for a toad to fit through and hide inside. (If you have a broken pot with a chunk missing at the rim, you have an abode with an instant doorway - no need to prop it up.)
- Finally, ponds also provide cover for water-based wildlife so if you have a pond, you are already providing cover and places to raise young.
- Nest Boxes / Houses -- This website will provide you with information on nesting habits and nest box options, including what nest box will attract what species of birds, and even provide instructions for building nesting boxes / bird houses -- if you are handy in woodworking. If you are not (like myself), there are beautiful, ready-to-inhabit nest boxes available for purchase.
Attracting Other Wildlife to your Garden:
Squirrels: One inexpensive way to feed your squirrels is to buy compressed corn logs, available at your local at Wal-Mart. The squirrels love them and they last longer than regular cobs. Alternatively, you can buy 50 pounds of feed corn oftentimes for less than $10 at your local feed stores.
No Raw Peanuts, Please! Don't feed raw peanuts to squirrels and other animals because it can seriously hurt them. Raw peanuts and other legumes contain a trypsin inhibitor or substance that inhibits or prevents the pancreas from producing trypsin, an enzyme essential for the absorption of protein by the intestine. The detrimental effects of feeding raw peanuts have been documented since 1917. Squirrels fed a steady diet of raw peanuts, soybeans. other legumes, and sweet potatoes could easily develop severe malnutrition. WDFW Urban Wildlife Biologist Patricia Thompson also reports that there are mycotoxins in raw peanuts that can cause liver, kidney, and brain diseases which unfortunately are seen in many birds. If you want to feed peanuts, the solution is to roast them. According to the Washington State Cooperative Extension Service, roasting hulled raw peanuts for 20 to 30 minutes at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring them frequently, will destroy the trypsin inhibitor and render them suitable for feed. If that sounds like a lot of work, buy roasted peanuts but be sure they aren't salted. (Salted nuts of any kind should never be fed to wild animals.)
Fast, Free Butterfly Baths
Adapted from Panty Hose, Hot Peppers, Tea Bags, and More--For the Garden, by Yankee Magazine (Rodale Press, 2006).
Butterflies are drawn to water, but only if they can wade and flit in just the shallowest of shallows. (Ever notice gatherings of butterflies on the puddles along a creek or stream?) They are also are drawn to a particular nutrient found in soils. Here's how to provide butterflies a butterfly spa that they love so that they flock to your garden, deck, or balcony:
Make a Butterfly Landing Pad
1. Recycle an old Frisbee. Add marbles to the bottom for weight and landing pads (or a flat stone, a brick, or something organic and heavy that you have handy).
2. Sink a broken cup into the ground or into a large pot of plants on your deck or balcony. Cut up a sponge to fit into the cup or stuff in a well-rinsed net shower scrubber. Keep the cup filled with water.
3. Fill an old pizza or jelly roll pan with water to provide a shallow puddle on a sunny day. Line the pan with a cotton tea towel or paper towels. Make it "For Butterflies Only."
Another way to attract butterflies is to make a small butterfly spa using a large plate, an old baking dish, or a shallow ceramic bowl. Sink the dish into the ground (preferably in a flowerbed, which is attractive as well as convenient-no mowing around it) and fill it with sand, which has absorbed or contains the salts and nutrients butterflies love. Or just toss a shovelful of dirt into the container. Wet the sand or dirt thoroughly and make sure it stays constantly damp.
Make a Butterfly Buffet
A platform feeder meant for birds works nicely for giving butterflies a buffet of bananas, watermelon, or apples. Change the fruit every day or two to keep the display presentable, although the butterflies won't mind and would probably prefer rotting material. Swallowtails, painted ladies, and fritillaries are the most likely to visit a fruit station such as this.
Source: http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-2-7-1449,00.html
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