Bird Bath Do’s and Don’ts

Your garden is the height of bird-friendliness – you’ve got your feeders up, brightly painted nesting boxes entice passing would-be breeders, covered areas provide relief from the hot sun or the cold rain, hidey-holes away from predators. There are fruit trees, grasses and flowers bearing seeds, and insects and spiders have many dark corners in which to dwell. But – where is the water?

Browse along the tarmacked or Astro-turfed avenues of any garden center and you will eventually emerge into an oasis of concrete and stone ornaments of all manner of heights, widths and design.

Slate-gray bald eagles stand talon-sharp astride miniature Mount Rushmore’s; cherubim toot from flutes and bugles; alabaster foxes and hedgehogs give distinctly human grins around solar lights embedded in their paws; row after row of frozen David’s, Hercules’, and Venus’ stand emotionless on their plinths forever.