At the UWEC Children’s Nature Academy we are lacking a moving water source for our songbirds. Keeping the habitat healthy requires shelter, water and food, just as we do. We led a lesson pointing out all the things birds need to survive, and we realized we needed to walk the walk, and not just talk the talk!
We needed a quick and simple water source project. However, we ran into difficulties as making a water feeder out of recycled bottle was a too difficult for little hands. This summer we have had successes and failures, ups and downs. While we wouldn’t call this a “failure,” it was just too complicated for everyone to do. We did hang a few outside, though!
Putting up the Water Feeders
Mothers and father strive daily to provide, nurture, and teach their children. We try to protect our songbirds and give them a place to gather. When we do this, we get a chance to observe and watch them socialize. We observe mating patterns, feeding patterns, flight patterns, hear and song patterns. Looking and listening is fun when you can see their behaviors up close.
Planting wildflowers and berries at the academy will also provide much needed food source, especially in winter. This is a long term plan but we always look ahead. Our water source is only temporary, and I dream of clean, moving water for the birds to play in. I can’t wait for the children at the Academy to start noticing migration patterns as the birds leave and return.
It is joy that our Bluebirds travel all the way from the Southern states and South America to Wisconsin to breed. Our location gives us an opportunity to provide nest boxes and habitat for our visitors. Usually, a Bluebird returns to the place they raised their young or were born year after year. We want to provide a safe place that the birds want to return to, and by collaborating together we have begun our restoration.
The sun endures, the moon endures, life endures. Helping nature makes enduring life a bit easier.