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Drowning Danger to Wild Birds

• Message 1. 

  Posted by P Hodge (U15215286) on Monday, 2nd April 2012

  I was a little concerned to see Monty Don rig up an open container to collect rainwater from a greenhouse. Birds can easily drown in uncovered water containers. I myself have inadvertently left containers in the garden and gone on holiday, to return to find them full of rainwater and a dead bird in there. I think it would be safer to cover them somehow.

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by rini (U2365378) on Tuesday, 3rd April 2012

  I have got several open water containers at my allotment site and so far haven't had any problems with birds. Surely ponds would create the same problem.

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• Message 3

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  Posted by thedogcody (U14659366) on Tuesday, 3rd April 2012

  This has happened to me and it is not a pleasant site-I think they struggle to get out- that is the problem -perhaps we just do not see it with ponds-or it just doesn't happen.
  There maybe more activity with a pond and the bird gets frightened away?-as with a container they go for a drink and fall in?
  I don't know but it is good advice in any case to cover them if possible.

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 3.

  Posted by hypercharleyfarley (U7444019) on Tuesday, 3rd April 2012

  This has happened to me and it is not a pleasant site-I think they struggle to get out- that is the problem -perhaps we just do not see it with ponds-or it just doesn't happen.
  There maybe more activity with a pond and the bird gets frightened away?-as with a container they go for a drink and fall in?
  I don't know but it is good advice in any case to cover them if possible.  Same problem, apparently, with cattle troughs in fields. One solution to that is to fix some strong wire mesh a few inches below the level of the water so that the birds (in this case, barn owls) gain some sort of footing and are able to take off & fly away. The troughs have a ball-float switch (similar to those in a loo cistern) so that the water level remains more or less constant.
  
  So, perhaps a broad strip of wire netting fixed so as to hang over the side and down into the water container - at an angle - would be OK in this case if you don't have any suitable lids.
  
  There are also problems sometimes with hedgehogs falling down into the pit below cattle grids - to solve this, people sometimes fix a plank at a shallow angle, with some horizontal wooden slats, to make a hedgehog ladder.
  
  I guess that few ponds (whether garden ponds or natural ones) have no shallow part, or some sort of vegetation, which would enable a bird to get out.

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• Message 5

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by normaldot (U2379105) on Friday, 6th April 2012

  I think you need to accept the odd freak accident. I had a hanging birdbath and was horrified to find a dead chaffinch with its wings caught in the chain. I think it probably died quickly in the struggle because I am in the garden frequently and would have noticed. I will probably put up another birdbath, because the benefits outweigh that one death.
  I have an open water feature, my cat likes to drink from it, and it has not posed any problems.
  I once saw a blue tit impale itself on a gooseberry thorn, it flapped around and actually broke the branch before freeing itself. Birds are very good at taking care of themselves, but both wild and pet birds are prone to accidents.

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