Humming Blog |
Humming Blog |
Those of us who attract birds to our gardens know very well that water sources are of the utmost importance to keeping birds around and attracting them from surrounding areas. We've had several water features in our garden for over 20 years, and one feature does incredibly well because of certain features that birds love. We created a fountain with materials we already had, but to finish it off we needed a fountainhead or platform where the water would spill over and run back into the main water drum. I did a blog on creating a bird fountain years back, if anyone is interested. In THIS blog I will show you step by step how I created a fountain platform with improvements from the last one. Those improvements include craters to hold additional water, and to form little personal bathing areas for individual birds. I added some rough textured stucco type rocks to add grip for the little birds. Here are images of the materials needed to complete the project. Once I had everything ready, it took me about 45 minutes to complete the project the way I liked it. Then it took a few days for the cement to dry completely. I didn't replace the platform from before because our fountain is shut down for the season. Next Spring it'll be one of the first things completed. The cost of cement was $8.00. 1. I found a pot that trees are usually sold in, but choose a pot to suits your needs. 2. Then line it's with plastic, like a plastic garbage bag. 3. Find some rocks to form craters in the cement. They should be relatively flat that you can push into the cement to the desired depth, approximately quarter inch to 1 inch. These are the desired depths for birds up to Robin size. 4. You can use pea gravel or stucco sized rocks for the surface to give the birds traction or proper grip while bathing. 5. The last item requires is a tube matching the size or slightly larger than the tube you'll be using on your water pump to run up the center of the fountain through the middle of our fountain platform. In this case here, I used an empty silicone tube. LET'S GET STARTED Step 1: Mix your cement completely without making it too watery. Additional water will make it dry slower. Step 2: Center the tube in the pot while shoveling cement around it. I would recommend about 2 1/2 to 3 inches thick. This allows you to make craters in the cement without making it too thin. The plastic makes it far easier to remove afterwards, and gives it a cool texture when done. Step 3: Push your larger rocks into the cement forming craters ¼ to 1 inch deep. Wrapping the rocks in thin plastic makes it easy to remove them after about 4 to 6 hours of cure time. Step 4: Now pour the smaller rock around the larger ones, and press them gently into the cement. You want to make sure they don't fall out easily after it dries. Step 5: Once it starts to set, lift out the larger rocks. This is where light plastic makes it easier to lift them out. In another couple hours, you can slowly twist out the center tube. Turn it slowly while lifting to maintain the tube shape in the cement. Leave the cement to dry for at least 24 hours before attempting to remove it from the pot. As you can see, the rocks were pushed in at varying depths. This allows the birds to choose the depth they like, and I promise you, it makes a huge difference. Every time a bird finds the perfect depth, it'll return to that same spot later to bathe. Once this platform is placed over the tube, and leveled out perfectly, seal around the tube with silicone and wait at least 24 hours before turning on the water. Now the water will spill over the tube, fill in these craters, and then spill over back into the main water supply(the large drum), as illustrated at the start of this blog.
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