Have you ever wondered how many visits are made to your bird
bath by various animals on a hot day? I made such a survey at
our place a few years ago on a hot windy day with the temperature
at 88 degrees F. A total of 34 visits were observed between 1
and 2 P.M., some creatures coming only for water to drink, others
to drink and bathe.
The common grackles topped the list with 11 baths followed by
another bird that likes water, the blue jay with six dunkings.
Although the red squirrels drank often, six times during that
hour, I have never seen them bathe in the water.
Rose-breasted grosbeaks took great advantage of the bath
too—three times during the hour. The Baltimore orioles and
goldfinches each came twice along with the chipmunk who took
delicate but long drinks. The mourning dove, who seldom bathes,
drank once and the robin drank first and then splashed half of
the water out of the bird bath as it vigorously bathed, but only
once during the hour.
Who gets the water all muddied up? That’s easy—the robin.
They are busy making another nest and about the only place they
can find mud is on the ground around the edge of the baths, two
large metal garbage can lids that lie upon the ground, propped up
with a few small stones so that they are stable. Shaping the mud
into their artfully constructed nest "cup" gets the bird quite
dirty. I know I’d wash that mud off a couple of times an hour if
I were a robin.
Other birds that we have seen using the bird bath recently,
but not during my one hour of watching, are the indigo bunting,
scarlet tanager, chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch, eastern
bluebird, brown-headed cowbird, brown thrasher, field sparrow and
the hairy and the downy woodpeckers.
Seldom have we ever seen the hairy and downy woodpeckers
bathe, but they do drink water quite often. The one woodpecker
that does frequently bathe is the flicker.
A simple arrangement that will provide dripping water into
your bird baths will increase their effectiveness. Mine consists
of a small strong wooden pole driven into the ground next to one
of the baths. A sturdy wooden crossbar, parallel to and about
three feet above the ground, has been fastened to the pole and
braced. Now it is a simple matter to suspend a plastic gallon
milk jug that has been filled with water, directly above one of
the baths on the ground. Using a sharp knife point, puncture a
sm all hole on the side of the jug, about a quarter of an inch up
from the bottom so it won’t clog so easily with debris.
If you make the hole too large, you may have to recycle the
jug and be more careful with the next one. Ours drips at the
rate of around once a second. Slightly faster or slower will
make no difference to the birds. Fill the jug when it is empty.
There are also "spray-type" devices one can purchase at
bird-feeder supply stores. They work very well.
We have been seeing a large fox snake, commonly but
incorrectly referred to as a pine snake by many people, near our
house in summer for the past several years. What a thrill it was
to discover it drinking at the bird bath one late afternoon as I
returned from the garden.
Gradually I snapped pictures as I eased closer to the snake.
The thing that amazed me was how thirstily it gulped the water,
as though the colorful reptile had no bottom. I approached it
to within about three feet before it slithered through the water
in the bath and then over to the edge of the driveway.
There it coiled in the grass, vibrated its tail much like a
rattlesnake and lunged out at me repeatedly. The swishing sound
of its scaled skin, rubbing against the nearby foliage as the
snake attacked me, was quite fascinating.
I am quite sure that some species of snakes can obtain the
liquid they require for survival from the victims they eat
whether they be earthworms, mice, baby birds or eggs of primarily
ground-nesting birds.
I was interested to learn that not only do fox snakes drink
water but they will in certain instances also hibernate during
the winter under water, such as in an abandoned well. Richard
Vogt, who wrote the excellent book,
Natural History of
Amphibians and Reptiles of Wisconsin (Milwaukee Public
Museum), found 68 fox snakes hibernating under water in an old
well.
We place great importance in cleaning and refilling our bird
baths several times daily. Personal experience has indicated
that the baths are used much more if they are on the ground and
even more so if there is a slow steady trickle or dripping of
water into at least one of the containers.
Please put out water for the wild animals in your yard. Their
survival is critical to the natural world, and someone up there
will like you!
Western Fox Snake
This column appeared in the Door County Advocate on 06/25/1999.
© Copyright 1999 Roy Lukes. All rights reserved.
