The Blue Water Bowl
In a Pennsylvania Backyard
November 5, 2006
 


  After experimenting with a number of different water bowls to leave outside in our backyard, Sue and I bought a large blue water bowl. Supposdedly, it was a dog bowl, but we thought the blue bowl to be large enough to accommodate any bird wanting a bath.

Blue jays are always willing to try out a new bowl.
 

Blue jay at the blue water bowl
 
  In almost no time at all, a third of the water has been splashed everywhere.
 
Blue jay splash
 
  However, although the blue bowl was quite a hit among the birds, animals were also drawn to it, animals of all sizes.

From the small eastern chipmunk . . .
 

Eastern chipmunk and blue bowl
 
  To the joy of various squirrels . . .
 
Patches, a gray squirrel, enjoying a drink
 
  To the local groundhogs.
 
Groundhog and blue bowl
 
  I've read that groundhogs obtained all the water they needed from the plants they eat. Well, obviously, that naturalist never had a water bowl in his backyard.

Of course, birds still consider it to be their blue water bowl, as this mourning dove demonstrates.
 

Mourning dove in blue bowl
 
  There's nothing like a relaxing sit in a pool outdoors during a warm summer day.

Photo note: These photos were taken during spring and summer 2006. I used the Pentax *1st D (with a variety of lenses) for all the photos except the one of Patches, the gray squirrel. For her, I used my Sony F707.



My bird feeder

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