Birds and Squirrels

I’ve found that most people store their bird baths in the winter months, but this can be the time of year when birds are most in need of water for drinking and bathing.  Water is sparse in winter months when there’s a lot of snow on the ground, or if it is snowing outside.  I ensure that I fill my birdfeeders every couple days in the winter, but I also wanted to provide my winged friends with fresh water.  Then I saw a friend of mine had a heated bird bath on her porch and I thought; what a great idea!  Heated bird baths are kept warm through an un-invasive heating supply located on the bottom of the bath, and are controlled through their own internal thermostat.

I bought a heated birdbath as an early Birthday present to myself, and enjoy the fact that I’m helping out my neighborhood birds, and also that I have an active bird gathering place on my back porch.

You probably feel like you’re doing a good deed when you feed the birds around your home – and you are. But there’s another step you can take to make that deed even better. There are recycled bird feeders that are made from plastic and wood. These bird feeders are so special because they serve as an expression of your love for animals, as well as a sign that you care about the environment.

I think that if the birds could choose the feeders they liked best they would tell us to use the recycled ones. The materials used to make these feeders would otherwise be littering a landfill, floating in a mass of garbage in the ocean, or marring the forest floor. Save the world one bird feeder at a time.

I have always loved squirrels. In fact, when I was growing up my family had pet squirrel. One day, while working in the garden, my Mom noticed the neighbor’s cat had something in its mouth. Upon closer inspection she realized it was a baby squirrel. After convincing the kitty to give up its prize, she brought the squirrel inside the house. My Dad built a little enclosure for the squirrel, which we named “Gwowl,” which we kept on our back deck.

For months my Mom hand fed the pitiful little creature. And, after a while, it regained its strength and grew into a healthy adult. Eventually, the sad day came when we had to let the squirrel go back into the wild (the trees in our backyard.) But we kept a squirrel feeder out just in case the little guy felt like coming back for a visit.