If you want to add to the number of birds using your yard this spring, get your water moving. All birds need water and your resident birds know where to find your bird bath at all times. Migrating birds, on the other hand, are totally lost when they stop in your yard during their long journey. A way to help them find the all important water source is by making your water move and make noise.

I hope that you already have a water source available for your birds. If you don’t, we have plenty to choose from. Some of the hottest selling items so far this spring have been the bubblers, drippers and waterfalls. These electric or solar powered devices recycle the water with a pump, then the water cascades over a fiberglass “rock” making a great bubbling sound as it strikes the water again. That sound is like a magnet for birds.

Most of our Neotropical migrants like warblers, tanagers, thrushes and others do not eat seed but they do need water. Ruth can attest to how many species of birds on her yard list have been seen only at her “creek” which she created several years ago. Do yourself and your birds a favor, get your water moving.

By Mark McKellar

WINTER 2009