Keeping the bird bath full

is a twice daily undertaking in the heat.

The bird bath in the garden was made by the Senior Cat's brother. G... was a potter and it was a Christmas gift to the Senior Cat and my mother many years ago. The base on which it stood was broken in the move to this house but the wide, shallow bowl remains.

It is under the small orange tree. The tree itself is a miniature, only about one and a half metres high. It won't grow any bigger. The neighbourhood cats cannot climb it and then pounce on anything underneath. Pluto, the neighbourhood blue Burmese, will sometimes lie there. He doesn't bother the birds. They do not bother him. They are more wary of the other cats.

In the winter the bird bath may only need refilling twice a week. It depends on the weather and whether there has been rain. In summer I fill it twice a day. 

I fill it first thing in the morning. It is almost as if the birds are waiting for this, as if they tell one another I am doing this.  Occasionally some of  them even sit on the fence and watch. When I move back they come in chattering and drinking from the same water they are bathing in. Birds have no sense of hygiene! There are sparrows, blackbirds, peewits, magpies, ravens, lorikeets, honeyeaters, cockatoos, kookaburras and more. I don't know the names of all of them. It doesn't matter. Some of them dive in, others dip gently. They splash themselves with their wings and duck their heads and then shake themselves. 

If I keep the hose running for a little longer and turned to a fine spray the young sparrows and others will dart through the spray. It is a game for them. They go around and around deliberately darting through the water before flying off - presumably to find breakfast somewhere. I don't feed the birds. It is tempting but I have resisted. It is better for them to find their own food somewhere else in the garden or elsewhere.

But water is different. They really use very little of it. I pour the left over contents into the garden morning and evening and then refill the bowl. The garden is being given a little extra water. The birds have enough to drink.

And it is used by the cats, the lizards, the occasional dog. On one wonderful occasion it was even used by a young koala. 

I like to think I am at least trying to do something to help. Perhaps I am because this morning one of the young sparrows sat on the very end of the hose for a moment and looked at me. It was as if s/he was saying "thank you". That's thanks enough.