Our small holding is off grid and has no town water supply. It is next to a creek, but during the drought, when the creek was regularly reduced to a puddle, we installed a bird bath that is replenished daily with a small battery-operated timer. We have a wildlife camera fixed on it which records the varied wildlife that uses the bath.
The bird bath is very popular even during the wetter years. We record the variety of wildlife that visit the bath and have gradually found a seasonal pattern to some visitors. We created our bird bath using:
- A 100 litre Maze mini water tank $90.
- A Maze stand for the tank $30 (this allows tap timer to be fitted, and a little bit of gravity feed when pot and tank are on the same level). We bought our tank at Bunnings but they can be ordered directly from Maze.
- A battery-operated low-pressure water timer. This depends on what’s available at the time – currently Holman electronic low pressure tap timer about $60 at Bunnings.
- Water bowl – ours is deep and the birds regularly bathe in it. We bought a heavy-duty plastic bowl at Bunnings but any waterproof pot will do.
- Put a rock in the tub and a decent branch across the bowl. The wildlife use them all. We used a small star picket nearby to secure the hose and branch across the bowl.
- Various bits of hose and click on fittings depending on placement of your tank and bath.
Our tank and bird bath are on the same level and it works fine – just adjust the drip rate to roughly top it up daily. We can probably get by with topping up the tank every month or so; and we regularly give the bowl a decent scrub. The tank can be put in a convenient location to refill it. Make sure that the water is going into the bowl. The hose end should fall down to the bird bath, without any drips falling outside of the bowl.
During the drought we had to increase the flow rate and re-fill the tank more frequently. We couldn’t keep up during the 2019 bushfires when demand and evaporation were high and access by us was limited. When a neighbour’s cow got trapped inside the electric fence it hovered by the dripper getting every drop at re-fill time, so some monitoring is required!
Our most frequent visitors to the bird bath are Satin Bowerbirds, Eastern Yellow Robins, Lewin’s and Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, Australian Magpies and Pied Currawongs. We also get lots of bush rats, melomys and Long-nosed Bandicoots visiting too.
Regular but less frequent visitors are Lace Monitors, Grey Shrike Thrush, Bassian Thrush, Regent Bowerbirds, Swamp Wallabies, Brush-tailed Possums, Bar-shouldered Doves, Eastern Spinebills, Australasian Figbirds, Crimson Rosellas, Bell Miners, Rufous Fantails and the Emerald Dove.
Seasonal visitors include Spangled Drongos, Noisy Friarbirds, Olive-backed Orioles, Eastern Koels and Scarlet Honeyeaters. Occasional visitors include Sacred Kingfishers, Spectacled Monarchs, Variegated Fairy-wrens, Wonga Pigeons, Noisy Pittas, Green Catbirds, New Holland Honeyeaters, Red-browed Firetails, King Parrots, Wompoo Fruit-doves, plus cats, foxes, dogs and Cane Toads.
Article and photos by John & Alison Armstrong
Land for Wildlife members
Burnett Creek, Scenic Rim