Water – Our Habitat Garden

Water is an essential habitat basic. Here are some water-related topics in our landscape:

The creatures who use and enjoy our water resources
Our birdbaths
Our pond and stream including:
- Creating the pond and stream
- Maintaining the pond and stream
- How the pond and stream has evolved
Our wildlife pond including:
- Creating our wildlife pond
Water in winter

Why creatures need water

Water is essential for drinking and bathing — and even for some species as a source of mud for building nests.

For drinking

Just like us, wildlife needs water to drink. This shallow section of our stream has been popular.

A lot of birds seem to prefer standing on stones to get a drink rather than standing in the water itself.

Unlike most birds, doves drink with their heads down and bills in the water.

For bathing

Just like us, wildlife needs water for bathing. And for birds, this is important as a way for keeping their feathers in working condition.

We designed part of our stream to be wide and shallow so that there would be appropriate place for a variety of wildlife. We also created sections of the stream to have different depths and rates of moving water.

Some bird species prefer one area to another, and it’s always a busy place.

It attracts lots of birds: robins, goldfinches, catbirds, blue jays, mourning doves, and warblers to name just a few (as well as house sparrows, European starlings, and grackles, unfortunately).

Robins seem to be especially fond of bathing for some reason. They’re there all the time.

Birds, especially smaller birds such as this chickadee, also bathe in our wildlife pond.

For mud

Here’s our “bog,” which is connected to the stream. Although we initially created this mini-bog to grow moisture-loving plants, it unexpectedly turned out to be more valuable as a source of mud (though failing as an actual bog).

Many robins visit this area throughout the nesting season to collect mud to build their nests in our yard — and beyond.

Some bees also need mud to build their nests, but we haven’t noticed whether they’re getting mud from our ponds. They’re definitely getting it somewhere since some of our bee houses had mud caps on some of their nesting cells. When we think about it, we realized how little of this essential nesting material is available in the suburbs, which consist mostly of asphalt, hardscaping, and lawn.

For humans

Water is a basic habitat need for humans, too!

Though we don’t use our water features for drinking or bathing, the presence of the sight and sound of water resonates with the human soul.

Our weekly rainfall

Ave Weekly	Ave / Year	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct
2024	1-1/8″	7/8″	1-1/2″	1″	1-1/2″	7/8″	2-3/8″	3/4″	5/8″
2023	7/8″	.	1-1/8″	1/8″	1-5/8″	3/4″	1″	7/8″	.
2022	7/8″	.	.	.	.	1″	1-1/2″	1/2″	5/8″

Average weekly rainfall totals [A dot indicates I didn’t track the rainfall that month]

Resources

Penn State Extension:
- Water for Wildlife: Bird Baths and Backyard Ponds
Ecological Landscape Alliance:
- Strategies to protect vernal pools in the built environment – These temporary wetlands provide unique, essential habitat
National Wildlife Federation blog:
- Vernal ponds make your garden sing
- Beat the heat: Providing water for wildlife in your garden
USDA Forest Service:
- A Guide to Creating Vernal Ponds
Humane Gardener:
- Wildlife and swimming pools – Can they coexist?
NY Times:
- Why tiny ponds and singing frogs matter so much

Reflections

I have left almost to the last the magic of water, an element which owing to its changefulness of form and mood and colour and to the vast range of its effects is ever the principal source of landscape beauty, and has like music a mysterious influence over the mind.
~ Sir George Sitwell, On the Making of Gardens, 1909