E-Newsletter
Wild Birds #1 Winter Necessity — Water
A wild bird uses water for drinking and maintaining his feathers. During winter it’s even more important that he has water to bathe in. His feathers must be maintained in prime condition to keep him warm, otherwise his body will be poorly insulated and he will suffer from wasted energy.
It’s sad to watch a wild bird eating snow as a source for water during winter when one know the facts. A wild bird uses twelve times more of his energy to melt snow and ice than to bring it up to body temperature from the freezing point.
A shallow stream that stays running during freezes is a god-send to a wild bird and other wild creatures. Void of the luxury of an unfrozen stream one should keep a bird bath free of ice during winter at all times. A cement bird bath that cracks if it freezes needn’t be sacrificed. An overturned trash can lid will work and so will catch basins to large plastic planters.
One should never use anti-freeze or salt to prevent water from freezing. This will do harm to the birds or any other animals that might drink from the bird bath. If one salts his pond it will render the stream unsuitable for birds and wildlife also.
The simplest method of keeping the water melted is to install an electric fountain deicer. One may also pour boiling water over the ice but this method is only a temporary fix and one will need to continually melt the ice until the freezing weather is over. If the electricity should go off during a winter storm pond pumps and water deicers will become useless and this method may need to be adopted until the electricity comes back on.
From The Tour de' Ponds Edition of What's Up, Doc?, Sept thru Dec 2002 © Copyright 2002, Pond Doc's Water Garden Center. All rights Reserved. Reproduction of this article prohibited without prior consent of The Pond Doc.
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