Birds and Baths...

We have a ton of birds in our yard, and I love birds! I suspect they love the fruit trees that surround our back yard for several reasons. 

1 they are great nesting sites, 

2 fruit trees have bugs that love to eat fruit, 

3 some of them prefer the fruit to the bugs, 

4 they like to entertain us. 

We have humming birds, finches, sparrows, robins, starlings, and  morning doves, just to name the most common visitors. You know it is spring when you wake up to the sound of lots of birds chirping at 4 in the morning. I always try to accommodate my birdy friends. We used to put out food before we moved to this house. Now there is no need to put out the food. The only food I provide is for the hummers. However I love to treat the birds to a bath.  Yesterday when I was standing outside watching the birds. A starling landed on a storage tote with water on the lid. Before it even started bathing a robin came down and landed on the same tote and was waiting it's turn. Meanwhile a finch flew down and decided it wanted a turn as well. It was amazing to me to see that all though they were different types of birds they were all in need of a bath and they all waited politely for their turn. 

Well as you know bird baths can be fairly pricey, and bulky and heavy. Granted there is every kind of birdbath out there that you can imagine. (even an old storage tote with water on the lid)

Anyhow as I was blog hopping a few weeks ago I came across a very clever way to make a bird bath while recycling or reusing what you might be wanting to get rid of . Or you can do as I did and rescue a few items from your local thrift store. I have no Idea what blog I found it on, but I am so glad I did. I wish I could give credit for the idea to the person who blogged about it. 

Below is a tutorial for making your own bird bath. It is a super easy project. The hardest part is selecting what you want to use!

You will need at least:

 1 vase 

 1 plate or dish

 epoxy

 dowel or pvc pipe 

(Note: I only spent $6 dollars on my materials minus the epoxy.) 

First choose a plate or bowl or some sort of serving dish or platter.  Then get a vase. One of those  that are abundant in your basement or the thrift store or yard sales!

This is what I chose.

Wash and dry thoroughly.

Next you want to get out your epoxy or gorilla glue, basically use whatever you can rely on for a good strong bond. I used a 5 minute cure epoxy from our locally owned hobby shop. It is the greatest stuff I have ever used. I used up so much of my husbands supply that he got me my own! 

Mix equal amounts of epoxy and hardener. I tend to use a small drop more of the hardener. 

Mix together very well and spread onto the bottom of the vase.

Next position the bottom of the vase onto the bottom of your dish.  And leave it be for at least 5 minutes if you are using a 5 minute cure epoxy. 

These are some of the finished pieces. 

Now you want to get your dowel or PVC pipe to fit into your vase fairly snug, you don't want it tight or too loose. Too loose and it won't stand up straight, it will wobble and too tight you won't be able to take it off  if you needed to. 

Next position your dowel where you want it and put it in the ground so it is sturdy.

Slide on your vase and you now have a bird bath!

Fill it up with water and enjoy the peep show!

These are going to end up in my garden. But for now they are in the lawn so I don't have to work around them while I get my plants in the ground. 

This last picture was from up on my deck so they look smaller than they are. I used a generous sized dinner plate , 2 salad plates and a bowl. I loved the colors of lime and turquoise mixed with the chili pepper red and the egg plant. I think they are going to look gorgeous in my veggie garden this summer.