Catering To The Birds

Some context is in order here…

Back in late 2021, we decided to buy a mini-Christmas tree as a decoration for our back deck. It made it through Year 1 1/2 fine, at which time we brought it inside to see how it would fare as an indoor decoration. That turned out to be not as fine, and it expired mid-year 2023.

Tree #2 was purchased in late 2023, with the goal being to leave it outside year-round, except when extreme weather intervened. It did well outside for two full years before it caught some sort of rogue disease, which led to its passing earlier this Summer.

However, when Tree #2 was first installed on the deck, it was residing upon a fairly substantial, black catering plate. The plate needed to be heavy because the plan was to bring the fairly-heavy tree inside during inclement weather. We also needed it to be of a moderate depth to catch overflow from any heavy rains.

One day in 2024, immediately after a Spring downpour, we looked outside to find a couple of small birds drinking and bathing in the modest spaces allotted to them where the potted plant was not. They were treating the catering plate as…a bird bath.

Another catering plate was purchased (with an eye on having the proper depth and textured surface to be more birdy-friendly), and it was placed in front of Tree #2 filled to the brim with water…and a bird bath was born. Since that time, I have taken on the responsibility of changing the water as needed, keeping the water at the right temperature, and also keeping the catering plate clean. Business has been booming ever since.

(I don’t know if the birds even noticed when Tree #2 disappeared, but if any of them ever asked about it I vowed to tell them it was “on vacation”…)

I’m not good at identifying bird species, but I would guess we’ve had over a dozen different ones considered regulars.

The following are a few pictures from this year. The birds take off as soon as they feel any presence or hear any noise nearby, as the catering plate is just in front of our screen and sliding doors, so we have to “angle” our iPhone captures accordingly…

February 1st – After a severe ice storm, there legitimately was a foot of solid ice surrounding the house…and on the deck. I cleared off the deck so the bird bath could stay open for business without interruption…as long as I kept changing the water before it froze, of course. Here, one bird was quite appreciative of a place to get a drink.

May 16th – Tree #2 was still with us at this point, and here we had one visitor casually watching a second deploy its landing gear to join in the liquid refreshment.

July 21st – This is typical of activity in late afternoon, commonly referred to around these parts as “rush hour.” While they all are eager to get a swig and a swim in, in instances like this our visitors usually figure out the optimal number of birds in the bath at any one time is 3 1/2.

September 3rd – These three splashed water about so vigorously during their stop you can see it on the panes of the sliding door. On many occasions, the bird bath needs to be replenished immediately because much of its water has been displaced post-swim.

September 30th – Five at once this time, with one deciding to take off just as this was taken. Some birds get so water-logged they have to return to the deck railing first and dry off a bit before safely resuming their flight patterns.

We have always had our fair share of birds around as part of our suburban wildlife profile, but figured we were doing enough with the bounty of berries on our holly bushes, which have been a hit over the years judging by all the “leftovers.” On one hand, we wish we had also become a bird bath station well before now. On the other hand, we’re pretty confident catering to them in this way is getting us way more five-star reviews on whatever their version of Yelp is.

Picture Courtesy Amazon