Cheryl's Wildlife Habitat Tip-- #1 Water for Wildlife

Allandale's Neighborhood Habitat Steward, Cheryl Silver, is writing a series of tips to help us turn our backyards into certified wildlife habitats for the City of Austin Habitat Challenge. Here is her first tip:

One of the steps required to make your home a certified wildlife habitat is to have at least one water source for wildlife in your yard--water for drinking and bathing. I thought I would bring this up now because
it is hot and rain has been scarce......

About ten days ago I made it a priority in my own home to ensure there
is water in the birdbaths and I set up a shallow pan with a flat rock
in the middle under one of my oaks in the front yard---I can see it from
my living room and it has been soooooo busy--quite gratifying. I have
decided to set up a butterfly puddling area.

I have set my own birdbath/shallow pan in areas where the birds can
access the water safely.

Here are some types types of water sources mentioned in the wildlife
habitat application:

- birdbaths--- keep an eye on these as they will dry up quickly (if they
heat up, add some ice cubes)
- lake
- stream
- seasonal pool
- ocean
- water garden/pond
- river
- butterfly puddling area (watch for more butterfly puddling info soon!)
- rain garden
- spring

Please, let me know if you take the step to add any water features to your yard.
Contact Cheryl Silver at csilver2 (AT) austin (DOT) rr (DOT) com.

For more information visit our previous post here.