Bird baths

As well as being beautiful to watch and listen to, birds are really important for our garden. They eat pests such as aphids and other insects and also help to spread seeds and pollinate flowers. 

At this time of year there's not so much food for the birds and they can also get short of water. So it's important to provide them with water to drink and bathe in. 

This week we made a bird bath for our garden and some small bird baths to take home. 

First we took some stones and rocks and gave them a good wash. 

We picked a large plant pot saucer from the potting shed. The birds need shallow water so they don't fall in and drown.  We filled the tray with the clean rocks so the birds have a place to perch. 

We thought about where in the garden we should put the bird bath. We found a quiet spot in the orchard where the birds wouldn't be disturbed too much. We also put it in a visible place so if a predator like a cat came along the birds could see it in time to fly away. 

We filled the bath with water and re-arranged the stones so they weren't all under water. 

Then we went back to the classroom to make our own mini bird baths, using shells, rocks and shallow saucers. We labelled them and took them home to put in our own garden or backyard.