Heat Wave in eastern Australia

[Betrisher]

To all my friends in Australia: please consider putting out a large container of water for the native birds to drink in this awful heat wave. There are so few places where they can find water and it would be great if your back yard were one of them!


If you want to go the whole hog, put a margarine container of water in the freezer overnight and add the resulting ice-brick to your birdbath in the morning. (If you freeze more than one, you can renew it through the day).
I'm using an aluminium roast dish (cheap from Coles), but you can use anything that'll hold about three or four inches of water. Put a brick or large stone in for the tiny birds to perch on and make sure you put it in a shady area where cats can't lurk.

For those of you with caged birds, you can also add a large ice-brick to your birds' water, especially at midday and half-way through the afternoon. I've been spritzing my Beaks with cold water and they *love* it. If you can wet the bird right through to the skin, it offers significant cooling and lessens the bird's need to pant for heat exchange.


When I kept mice, I always provided ice-bricks in the summer. I don't see why we shouldn't place a large one (ice-brick, not mouse) in a bird's cage to provide a source of cooling. Just make sure you wrap it in something to prevent the bird's skin sticking to it and provide for it melting (ie. the ice, not the bird - you don't want a mess of papier mâché mixed with poo on the cage floor).


The next couple of months are going to be awful for everyone, but at least we humans have fans and air-con. Don't forget the wildlife, eh?

Betrisher

 

[caiquewalk]

Good advice, we have had some pretty extreme weather.

 

[SailBoat]

Stay Safe!
Those are wonderful ideas to care and supporting both the native and companion bird.
Thank-you!

 

[Allee]

Thank you for sharing these great tips, Trish!

 

[Scott]

Timely advice, Trish! Many folks would gladly oblige wildlife if only they had a reminder for awareness. Stay cool!!

 

[Terry57]

Wonderful advice, Trish, and I hope it reaches many. I bet your yard is filled with birds, isn't it?

 

[Betrisher]

LOL! It sure is at the moment, Terry. Mostly Noisy Miners, unfortunately (they're irritating honeyeaters who drive most of the other birds away). However, we've also had LOTS of Rainbow Lorikeets, wild Galahs and Corellas and on one memorable day, we had thirty-six Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos up our big gum tree.

We're having 40ºC (100ºF) heat most days in the middle of the day and it isn't really dropping much at night (just a few degrees). At least the humidity's lower than it was earlier in December.

 

[LaManuka]

The bit about an ice cube in pet birdies water is clever thank you and we have water dishes in the yard ... but I’m saying NOTHING about weather in BNE I don’t wanna jinx us!

 

[Betrisher]

Very wise about not jinxing the weather! I'd give anything for a drop of rain, humidity or no. I put frozen coke bottles in the outdoor dishes and just float a frozen marge container in the cage ones.

I learned about wrapping the ice-blocks when I kept mice. I 'kindly' put in an ice brick and within minutes, all my poor girls had stuck to it!!! I had to quickly drench them with water to get them unstuck. Still, once I'd learned to wrap the brick in cloth, the mice would huddle together on the lid, enjoying the coolness. Oddly, the boys never did this, but squidged themselves as close as they could to the bottom of the brick. I s'pose it had something to do with keeping their boy-bits away from the ice.

 

[caiquewalk]

I am afraid it if rains now, I will get hail the size of baseballs again. o.o



I fill up the doggy pool out back for my dogs, and put in giant ice blocks filled with chicken slices. Solves dinner and play in one go. Confuses the local butcher birds though.