I drowned a squirrel in my garden fountain, I didn’t mean to. I like squirrels and have many squirrel friendly parts of my yard. But sad to say he drowned because I didn’t make sure he had a way out. So if you have a bird bath or a garden fountain or a bird bath water fountain or any sort of water feature in your yard make sure it has an escape ramp of some sort. A little pile of carefully placed rocks works well.
Another safety consideration is how well your bird houses and bird feeders are attached to their hangers. The bird house feeder that I dropped on the poor unsuspecting bird (who only wanted me to fill it so he could have lunch) was an older one and apparently I hadn’t checked it recently. When I grabbed for it, the bird feeder fell apart dropping the roof on the little house sparrow. Well I guess that’s ironic roof/house sparrow (ooh poor bird).
After these several instances (and a few more) I have come to pay attention to garden safety. Here are a few tips. Make sure your bird bath water fountains and garden fountains have something that helps the critters get up and out of the water. Check all moveable parts of birdhouse feeders and wooden bird feeders to make sure they are securely attached and can hold the weight of a bird without falling apart or falling off their hangers. Make sure that ornamental bird houses and bird feeders won’t fall if the breezes get too strong, or in my case if a cat, raccoon or occasional bear tries to hang from it.
Our gardens should be safe havens not hazards for our little friends. Since we invite them in we need to make sure we protect them as best we can.
