The Bird Bath
Last summer I was at a friend’s house and he had a shallow dish in a hanger on his balcony for the birds to drink from. I thought it was a cool idea, so I copied it and I bought one of those shallow dishes used for under a potted plant and I bought a cheap macremé hangar for it and I put it up on my front porch, next to the bird feeder.
But I never saw any birds using it.
Then just a few weeks ago, I was watching the birds at the feeder and one of them flew over to the dish and took a couple of drinks and then flew off. It made me smile and feel good.
So all this time I have been keeping the dish full of water and from time to time I would notice that I would fill the dish one day and the next day it would be pretty much empty. I just assumed that I had spaced out and forgotten to fill it for a few days and the water had evaporated. Obviously, the birds weren’t drinking it dry in two days.
Then yesterday, I was once again looking out the window and I saw a bird come and take a couple of drinks and then do the most remarkable thing. He hopped into the dish and took a bath! He splashed around like crazy for a minute, throwing water everywhere and then took off. Suddenly the penny dropped and I knew where the missing water had be going. So all this time the birds have been drinking and bathing in the dish as I had hoped they would, but I finally got to see it.
