As well as having a pond and a "regular" bird bath, I also keep dishes of water scattered throughout the gardens for the wildlife.
Old clay drainage trays work well.


This Chipper that's teasing Lucky uses them, so do the red squirrels and rabbits.

Sweet. One of my cats (I have 3) chases squirrels constantly, He's able to stay just barely behind their tail and has never been able to outrun one to the point of catching it. The squirrels head up trees or whatever before that happens. But he can move and turn right with them and they look almost like one unit running across the back yard. Do yours try to catch them or are they house cats?

Mine are all house cats. I don't allow the dogs to chase anything, they've learned that they have to share their space.

That's good. It sounds like they are very well trained dogs. What breed?

They're not very well trained at all!
They're leashed when they're out since I don't (yet) have a fenced in yard. They know they'll come up good and short if they try to chase anything!
Westie, JRT/Mini Schnauzer mix and Spaniel.

That's a great-looking trio. What is JRT? A Rat Terrier of some type or ?

Jack Russell Terrier

Water in the wildlife garden is a good thing to remind folks about. IMHO, it's probably one of the most overlooked elements. But tremendously important. Especially in the warm, dry climates.

I hope we see more about this.

you can have the best environment known, but it isn't complete without water....

Yes, and then people wonder what's wrong with their wildlife garden and why it isn't attracting wildlife.

It's nice to have a container of water with rocks that are big enough for critters to crawl up above the water, too. That way they're less likely to drown! Anything that adds to the "habitat" is usually a good thing!

I have quite a few birdbaths. A creek runs accross the back acres. I have had stray dogs drink from the baths and once Bill looked out and saw several horses drinking from the baths and chomping down on the seed.

Totally agree with providing water for the wildlife especially during those onerous dry days..just hope the birds and feline don't go there at the same time And be adept in cleaning it out too as needed

My water fountain gets its thirsty visitor every now and then:
Dunno which neighbor owns this one, but it sure knows where she can get her drink:


Some birds drop by, either to drink, or maybe just wet their feet:




And this is an old video I took at our old apartment, hummingbird that loves our solar fountain
http://youtu.be/XpcJoHittKc

I've got a large container set up high as a bird bath. It's got a large flatish rock in it so birds can pick the depth of water that suits them. But there's a number of ponds as well. Some of the honeyeaters prefer to divebomb the water for their bath. And the Sulphur-crested Whte Cockatoos prefer to chew into any exposed irrigation lines to get their water. I've had to replace some of my lines that became like those perforated hose type sprinklers.

I had a connection between two water hoses damaged quite a few times last year. I think that only during the worst droughts would it happen like that. Of course, I was putting out water then (both in the yard and outside) and checking it twice a day...but there were times when in spite of multiple containers, I'd find the containers empty outside the yard...usually when they were knocked over by animals (perhaps the feral hogs during the night). So I figure that desperation on the part of late-comers caused the damaged hose connections when they couldn't get water any other way. Ironic...the two connected hoses were set up so I could supply water to the feeding/watering area outside the yard two times a day.

Do you have lots of feral hogs where you are, Linda?

There are some...not lots like some parts of Texas where there are oodles...but then too, it doesn't take many of them to cause major problems..

I have a low clay bowl that I use for water for the birds also. They really love to bathe in that as it must be the perfect depth and not too big. I do have two regular birdbaths also and of course the ponds so critters and birds can always get water here somewhere.