One For The Birds (General Garden)

Member Name: hudso_a

Product:	General Garden
Date:	13/10/01 (139 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Adds a little bit of interest to your garden

Disadvantages: Can not think of any

Autumn is well and truly upon us and before long we will be into winter and time to make sure our feathered friends have food and water. If you have a decent size garden with one or more trees in it then you can hang nets with nuts or seed from the trees and you have no problems with feeding the birds, but where do you put water for them to drink?

I have a fairly simple bird table in my garden, which I made about eight or nine year ago while I was at school and it is still going strong. I was only about fourteen when I made it and have never really been very good with tools so if I can make one any one can.

This is a very simple project, just a square of wood mounted on a stake, which is then pushed into the ground.

You need a stake about 6 foot long and about 2 inches square, you can buy stakes at most garden centres and they are already sharpened at one end, they are usually used for supporting young trees. The tabletop should be about 9 inches square and about 1 inch thick; again you should be able to get this from most wood yards.

The most important thing for our feathered friends during the winter months is water. When we have frost and ice the birds are unable to get water to drink and because of this it is a good idea to incorporate a container for water into the top of the bird table; to do this get an empty plastic tub, something like an empty shallow margarine tub with a rim at the top will do, place it upside down on the top of the table somewhere between the centre and edge and draw around it; having done this measure about an eighth of an inch all around the inside of the drawing and again draw around (you need the tub to fit snugly). Drill a hole in each corner of the drawing to enable you to get a hacksaw blade or electric saw in and cut out the shape of the tub, the tub should fit inside the hole. You can then keep changing the tub and keep it topped up with fresh water but make sure the water does not freeze dur
ing the winter.

Drill a hole through the centre of the table top and fasten the top to the stake with a brass woodscrew, the screw should be at least two inches long. If you find it difficult to screw completely down, remove the screw and drill a starter hole in the centre of the stake, you should then be able to screw the table top straight onto the stake.

If the tabletop wobbles when the screw is in place cut four small triangular wood braces from 1 inch thick wood and screw these onto the stake flush with the tabletop.

Tack some balsa wood around the edge of the table top to prevent the wind blowing the bird seed and bread of the bird table and screw one or two cup hooks onto the edge of the bird table to hang nets of nuts or seeds from.

Hammer the bird table into the ground about 2 feet deep to keep in place. This is a very basic and really simple bird table but also very effective and it adds a little bit of interest to your garden during the bleak winter months. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done for THAT type of bird!!

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