Making my backyard bird habitat

I said in a recent blog that a backyard bird habitat was going to be one of my future projects. I decided that it would be a good idea to include photos of this from start to finish.

So in this series of photos I will walk you all through what was involved. I decided the best place to set this habitat was at the corner of our yard by one of our lilac trees for a few different reasons they are I needed an area of the yard that tends to go udisturbed by our dog and children.

This area of the yard is off limits due to the garden being there so it should be safe. Another reason is as the sun sets I felt this was a fairly well lit part of the yard in the afternoon.

And of course we do have a frequent visitor that I know the song birds will appreciate the lilac tree as shelter from if he/she decides to pay a visit and that would be a hawk that I have seen from time to time.

In the first three photos you see I dug a shallow hole "I sure wish I was in a part of the state that had sandy soil rather than clay" this did not seem to be as difficult when I was a child digging holes all over my parents lawn. Well what this hole is going to be is a shallow pond for the birds to bath and drink. I could just use a store bought bird bath but what I hope to acheive is as natural looking photos as possible so the birds appear to be in the wild with no enticement.


In this next photo you see the lilac which I hope that the song birds see as a great perching area I think it would be a great prop in my photos but I will have to see. I am also going to do some much needed pruning.

Well I must admit when I got going on this project there was no stopping. So unfortunately I did not photograph as much of the details that I hoped to. I will explain it as best I can. After I had dug the hole I went to the local hardware store and picked up a roll of 10' x 25' 4 mil black plastic ( didn't have shorter length rolls ) it came to just under $20. I then cut it about twice the length of the hole and lined it with the plastic. Then in the last three photos it shows how I placed rocks, logs, branches, and other natural materials along the edges of the pond. Then filled it with water I would say not much more than 6-8 inches deep. Sadly I have been unable to get out in my ground blind to photograph the many birds that have given their approval of this water feature I have built. I hope to get out in the near future and post photos of these birds soon.