Winter Birdbath Maintenance so easy that you can Clean & Refill it daily? Are Birdbath Heaters needed? Ep#17

• Daily maintenance is possible only if it easy. Birdbath design and location are the two most important factors in developing a habit of cleaning birdbath daily. 
• Birdbath heater alternatives for frozen birdbaths in the winter. 
• Which regions in US Southwest could benefit from having a birdbath heater

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Garden in Nature Southwest. I am Vani Shukla. In this episode, let's talk about making bird bath maintenance really easy. And especially during the winter times. Now, this is useful in any season, however, I'm going to include in this episode certain specific things for winter that are more relevant for the cold weather. I will briefly talk about bird bath heaters if they're really useful in our southwest region, or can we do something without it as well? But as far as regular maintenance, we have all struggled, I'm sure, at some point with maintaining a good schedule where we are cleaning the birdbath every day or every other day and filling it with fresh water. The bird bath is not necessarily the priority compared to so many other things that are on the to-do list. So sometimes the bird bath gets forgotten for a few days. Now more recently, that is in past 12 months or so, I have been able to maintain one of my bird baths very very regularly and it is always clean and filled with fresh water. Now this happened rather incidentally. I was trying to create a setup where I would be able to photograph the birds easily from indoors. But this setup also made me realize that the reason I was maintaining the birdbath so easily was because of two main things. The design of the bird bath and the location of the birdbath. So let me go over a little bit more detail what do I mean by the design of the bird bath and how is that important. So let's say you have any of the different designs that are available, commonly available. Say, for example, it could be a terracotta bird bath, a ceramic birdbath, or a stoneware, it could be a concrete birdbath. These are very common bird baths. Some of them are plastic or metal as well. To emphasize the point about why design is important, let's go over the individual steps of cleaning that birdbath. You know, usually when we think about cleaning the birdbath, we just think of that one task, clean the birdbath. But what does it involve? We go over there to the birdbath, we lift up that uh birdbath bowl. You know, a lot of the bird baths have separate bowl that is on a pedestal, it's kind of sitting on the pedestal or the stand. And um, you have to lift the bowl to empty the birdbath. If the bowl is too heavy, then you're just going to tilt the bowl over so that you can empty it. Now that will mean all that water will splash around you. Then the next step you have to do is with the brush, you have to, you know, scrub it a little bit just to remove that slimy layer that might have built up, even if it's not to the point of algae or any bird droppings or any other debris that might be there. You will be scrubbing that lightly with the brush. And then you will be pouring some fresh water again and then emptying that bowl again. This does require a little bit of effort. Now, as gardeners and people who are used to working outdoors, we don't mind hard work. However, what we're talking about is sort of a habit, a routine of just providing clean water every day to the birds. So if we want to do it every day, it has to be something super easy that you can do without thinking, that you can do even in your work clothes, even just before running off to work, so it has to be something that is super easy. So the size of the bowl, the weight of the bowl, it definitely matters. Now plastic and metal could be light, however, in my opinion, I don't think that is the best. Plastics, of course, with the concerns of plastic leaching, chemical leaching. And with the metal, it gets very hot quickly in our southwest region. So that may not be the best choice either. And of course, the corrosion of the metal, you know, that's also something that you have to consider over time. So we are going to be using the ceramics or the stoneware or terracotta. Now, terracotta is not the best choice in the winter time because when it freezes, it cracks or breaks. So your choice is ceramic or stoneware that is pretty sturdy and will not break during the freeze. So now what I have been using as one of my bird baths for many years is just a ceramic tray, a glazed ceramic tray, that is not really intended for a birdbath, but rather it is for the planters, you know, what you put under the planters so that the extra water that is drained out of the planters can be collected in that tray. You know, you find those in Home Depot or Lowe's, any home improvement stores. But these particular ones also are frost resistant. There's actually a sticker that is on top of these when you go and buy these from Lowe's or Home Depot, you will see the sticker that says frost resistant. So the particular tray that I'm using currently is about 10 inch in diameter, and it is about maybe a one inch high. Um, and I've been using this for about four years now. All the frost and freezes, and it's gone through all of those, and it hasn't had uh any cracks or breakages or anything like that. So the easy thing about this, what why do I find it easy to maintain? See yourself walking out with a jug of water, you know, a jug that you have filled in your kitchen. This is a small tray, it's not going to require a whole lot of water. So you can just have a large pitcher filled with water from the kitchen. That's one less step. You know, you don't have to fill the water outside from your faucet in the cold weather. Just carry it outside from your kitchen. Then, because the tray is much lighter, you're just able to hold it with one hand, empty the water, put it back on the stand. So, yeah, I forgot to mention I keep it on a stand, you know, the stand that comes for keeping your container plants, you know, you put a planter on a on a stand. So you're able to pick up this tray with one hand and rinse it, brush it lightly and then rinse it with the water that you have in your other hand. Now, during the winter time, because there's not much of an algae problem, not every single day you have to brush as well. You can just empty the old water, fill it with new one. But every other day I make sure that I brush it as well. To make it easy, I keep the brush close by. Now, this is something that can be done easily by your kids also. Just send them out with a jug of water and just ask them to uh top it over. Even like to make it super easy, even a five-year-old could just walk out with the water and just ask them to top it over. They don't even have to, you know, worry about emptying it or anything because it's a small amount of water. When you put a jug of water on top, if not all of the water is replaced, at least most of the water is replaced by fresh water. So it definitely makes it easier. Now the second thing that I realized that made it super easy to clean, apart from the design of the bird bath, was the location of the birdbath. The location I chose because of the photography, but it ended up being so convenient because it is very close, very close to my kitchen door that opens in the patio. Just about 15 feet from the kitchen door. And that's why it makes it so easy that we just carry the water from the kitchen outside and we are able to clean it, rinse it, fill it with fresh water. So it is super easy. So this can be done anytime during the day. And another key thing is that it's visible from the kitchen window. So I'm always seeing it. I always know if there's any debris or leaf material or bird droppings or anything there, it's visible. When something is visible right in front of your eye, you're less likely to avoid it for a long time. You know, if a bird bath is in a faraway corner where it might look pretty, and I have certain other bird baths in different um areas of the garden, but I'm not able to see what's inside the birdbath. Is it dirty? Is it empty? I'm not able to see it, and it's easier to get neglected when it's far away. When it's right in front of you, and it's so convenient to just go out and take care of it anytime during the day by any person in your house, then it's just maintained very, very regularly. In the winter time also, it becomes even more convenient when something is so close by, let's say it's very breezy outside or it's freezing outside, you don't mind stepping out in the cold weather when it's so close, when the birdbath is so close. So that brings me to the other issue that is about the frozen bird baths during the winter time, and do you need to have a birdbath heater? So, talking about the southwest region, most of our regions have daytime temperatures that are not freezing in most of the areas, and we have sun in most of the regions. If you take a look at the USDA zones, most of the southwest regions fall uh 7 or 7 to 10, between 7 to 10. And so in these zones, yes, we can have freezing nights, but it is not super super cold where the temperatures will go less than 20 degrees all the time. So because we have sunny days and they're non-freezing, we won't have an issue with freezing water during the daytime. And when are the birds using your birdbath? During the daytime. So the only part that we have to deal with is the frozen bird baths during the morning. You know what I have found so easy is to just walk out with an electric kettle. The water is not super hot to you know cause a burn, it's definitely not boiling, but it's a little bit hotter than just lukewarm, right? So what I do is I just pour the water. That's it. I just pour the water on that frozen solid ice. What that does is it creates a little puddle in the center of the ice where the ice is tawed, and also in the edges, the ice is loosened, so um, there's a little bit of water on the edges also. So now when the birds are coming, they're able to find some water. You don't have to make it super comfortable as we humans would expect for ourselves to have nice, cozy, warm water. Birds don't find that in nature. If they have a little puddle here and there of water in the wild, it's going to be frozen. So just yesterday in the morning it was 22 degrees Fahrenheit, and that is minus 5 Celsius. And uh the water was completely frozen in the bird bath, so I just poured out hot water early in the morning. So as birds started coming in, the water was most of the water was still frozen, but there was todd ice on the sides as well as in the center, and they were able to step on the ice and you know drink from the center, or many of the birds were drinking from the sides, and you know, they just kept coming in, drinking, they were drinking water, flying away. That's how it is. In nature, also, if you know there's a little crack somewhere in the ice where they are able to put their beak in and get a little drink of water. Now, if you're in a place where it's just super cold and the whole day is you know 30 degrees and the temperature is not going above that, then of course it I think it might be worth it to have a birdbath heater just to make it convenient for yourself because even if you pour water, it's going to be frozen pretty soon. Now, why does it not freeze here, you know, after we pour water? Yeah, for a short time it looks like it's going to freeze again. There's a little bit of layer forming. So after an hour or so, if I take a look, there's a little bit of ice forming. But also think about the fact that the day eventually is getting warmer, not colder. So eventually, you know, as long as there's a little bit of water, birds will find it in the birdbath, and eventually it's going to melt anyway. It's not going to freeze more because the day temperature is going up and up, not down. So, in in these areas, zone seven or more, and sunny days most of the year, I don't think it's worth buying the bird bath heater. But if you're in a really cold area, then definitely it might make it convenient for you because you're not going to be running after the bird bath, keeping track of that frozen bird bath all the time. So in those areas, definitely it might be helpful. Also, you have to realize sometimes we think okay, it's gonna solve our all our problems, but the bird bath heater is not going to clean the bird bath. We will still be going to the bird bath to fill fresh water, also to clean the bird bath, so we will be going there anyway. So rather just walk out with hot water and your bird baths will be okay. Now what about my other bird baths that I have around the garden? So I have realized and accepted that I'm not going to be able to maintain these bird baths all the time, every day, or frequently on a routine basis. It's just not going to happen. It's not convenient. So I still have these bird baths and I fill them sometimes. So for example, I had a nice talavera bird bath in the front yard. And there were days where I was every day going in the morning. So during that stretch of about a week or so, I was filling that birdbath, cleaning that bird bath every day. Then there was other time I was in the process of mulching my fruit area, and there's a bird bath close to that area, and during that time I I kept that bird bath maintained, cleaned, filled every day. And you know, at other times it's just very pleasant outside, and you do have a high motivation to fill all your bird baths, and that's what I do. I fill sometimes all of these bird baths, and they all are clean, but that does not last very long. It's only for a few days, and that's okay because this one bird bath, this shallow dish, this uh uh ceramic tray that I have close by, close to my kitchen patio, that is there all the time. It's super reliable. So, what kind of things can you do in your space to have this kind of a setup? You might not have a kitchen patio or a kitchen door or look into your space. What is that space that you can see from your windows, from inside? What is that space that you can see every day? Is there a door that you step out every day anyway? You know, you're not going out for the garden or you're not going out for the birdbath, you're just stepping out anyway because that's the way you go in and out. And is there a place close by in the corner that you can keep that birdbath? And especially if you can see that birdbath from inside, from indoors. It could be a balcony, it could be a little patio, it could be anything, right? So that would work best. So birdbath that you can lift with one hand, not very heavy, and something that is easily and clearly visible from indoors. That would be so much easy to maintain. Now you might think that, well, you know, if it's so shallow and small, it will dry out quickly. Well, if you're filling it every day, then it won't because the other bird bats dry out because you're not filling them every day. Especially if you have a choice of a couple of locations, you know, choose a location that is under the tree. Choose a location that is in the shade. So if you have that choice, that would be best. And it's best for the birds too, because the water then is not going to be too hot in the summer. So these were the ideas I could share with you in this episode. Thank you for listening. Until next time, bye bye.