put lids on your water butts

[Snadger]

It appears I am in the minority then..........

In my defence, I do have a pond which is ramped for small animals to escape and I do my bit for wildlife in other ways.

[Bigmallly]

I don't think you are in the minority Snadge, I have 5 water collectors of which only 2 have lids. I don't think it crosses folks minds to lid them until you come across discussions like this.

[bazzaboy]

I’m with Snadger on this one too, not that I (or he, I’m sure) wish birds any particular or vindictive harm but I do think recently the garden centres have developed an artificial caring and supplementary feeding schedule for birds that is mainly to the advantage of their profits and sometimes of less advantage to the birds. I’ve even come across research that concludes supplementary feeding may be directly harmful to the natural life-span of certain species, do we really want to create obese birds?

Similarly on life-span issues, for the most part and for many living species including many birds, a high early mortality rate is built into their survival and reproductive rate. We don’t expect every celery or carrot seed to result in viable celery or carrot, we certainly don’t wish every dandelion seed to root, flower and have pretty clock heads for the kids to blow…. So whilst there’s no need to set out to deliberately drown birds (in the same way we might deliberately set out to drown slugs and snails oh oh) for many species a high early accident mortality rate is part of their cycle.

And even more extraordinary, in the greater cycle of things, it’s essential for human well-being that elements of that balance are maintained… Just do the maths if every hatched bird survives….. Don’t blame me, that’s life, I didn’t invent it, sometimes it’s a bit of a mess…. x

PS But yes, 2S, it is “kind” to take the precautions you mention and adds to the kindly image we already have of you! Precautions can be both helpful to you as well as creatures (not only fledglings, I’m for ever rescuing swimming ladybirds… ). I currently have (somewhat to my own surprise once I count them…) 11 water collectors of various types, 1 is permanently sealed, 7 have lids to prevent flies and evaporation (and children…), 3 have plastic watering cans in which tend to float proud; all of them have a chunk of polystyrene floating as it’s supposed to help prevent frost damage. The hosepipe ban (ha! it’s rained every day since that came into force) is about to cause another 2 to be sited (so now I’m worried about having 13, better add 3); rest assured they can have lids. Love to all, Kindly BB. x

[Two_Sheds]

Similarly on life-span issues...a high early mortality rate is built into their survival and reproductive rate. ... a high early accident mortality rate is part of their cycle.

but we have introduced artificial methods of mortality: I'm thinking mostly of the domestic cat, which kills millions of wild birds a year

I will continue to feed the birds in my gardens, to increase their chances against this unnatural foe (I use the term unnatural because although it may be natural for a cat to kill a bird, it is not natural for the UK to have millions of these non-native predators roaming the land)

[Jason Cartwright]

I have 9 water butts, but fish in only 3 of them, the open-topped ones at home

Fish in water butts. didn't think of that.
Do you have filters or will they be alright with out?

Thanks

J

[Stormforce]

we have house sparrows nesting in our loft and the last thing we want is for the babies to end up drowning if they land in the waterbutt so i have cut a piece of ply to go over the top