Water for the birds

Since Valentine’s day is approaching I wanted to write about my amazing husband whom I met almost 20 years ago. A few days ago I woke up and found him boiling water to melt the ice in our birdbath. He had been on his way to the gym when he noticed the water was frozen and a bird was unsuccessfully trying to peck at the ice. He turned around and came back inside so he could help that bird get her much needed water. Kind acts like this make me fall more in love with him every day and they also mean the world to the recipients of his kindness.

Winter is especially hard for birds, food is harder to find and often water is frozen. Last week we didn’t realize the temperatures would dip that low, but normally when we are expecting very cold weather we use aquarium heaters to keep the baths from freezing solid. We just plug them into an outdoor extension cord and it works quite well as you can see from my photo. The heaters are less than $20 at pet stores. (Please read the label to check what temperatures they can handle so they won't break) It also helps to provide suet and there are quite a few recipes online for making your own suet for birds with peanut butter.

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