Thursday, July 16, 2009

Bird baths and a surprise visitor at the feeder

Quite some time ago I mentioned that I was going to review a garden product. Well has time ever gotten away from me, but I haven't forgotten so here goes. I was really excited to get a new bird bath for my bird area. When it arrived I found that although it was beautiful, it was not at all well designed, nor practical. The basin portion is nice, but very, very shallow. It dries up by noon in my desert area. The real problem was with the base, which consists of two identical pieces that slide together. I noticed that they had holes in the feet, to stake them into the ground, but they also had the same holes at the top, as though they were supposed to attach to the basin part. However they weren't-the pedestal was just designed so that the two pieces were interchangeable- but the holes at the top were not used for anything- and in fact the basin was supposed to just rest on top of the pedestal. I could see the monsoon winds, or even a cat tipping it right over. And to top it off as I slid the two parts together, one foot hit my tile floor and chipped right off.

The company was amazing about replacing the broken part- no questions asked, and a new pedestal soon arrived in the mail. I ended up using the basin part on top of one of my cement tubes, which is a much steadier base for it. As you can see from the pictures I have the pedestal holding a potted plant under the olive tree, but it is tippy and will probably not last in that function. Anyone have any ideas on what I can do with these pedestals?

I guess the moral of this story, is to be sure the company you are ordering from has good return policies-and I give them an A+ for this. My son bought me a concrete birdbath for Moms day so I use both the shallow basin in the cement tube and a bigger bath now. The birds love me!


Look who was dining this morning at the feeder. A little white and blue parakeet!

He flew up into the pine tree overlooking the feeder for awhile.



And then came flying back to the feeder...he is out there now chowing down. I wonder how long he has been on his own and where he came from. I hope he finds the wild life wonderful!

9 comments:

easygardener said...

I hope the parakeet finds a friend. In the drive to make things look attractive utility often suffers!

Carol said...

He should do well with you watching out for him.

www.wildlifearoundus.blogspot.com

Serena Bates said...

Hi Dee

Nice blog. Its nice to see someone with a dry gaden doing such cool stuff. Come visit me sometime!

Raph G. Neckmann said...

What a great idea to have bird baths! We don't have them here in Giraffe World - I'll have to try and make one.

I like the design on the round basin.

Deborah Godin said...

That does seem like a surprise, but then again, you have plants growing wild that we up north only have in pots, so it figures you'd have a bird that we only see in cages-lol!!

Claude said...

Parakeets are native to Australia... so he may be able to survive just fine. Here in Texas, we have Quaker parakeets that have escaped captivity and have a breeding colony centered around one of the local parks.

Julie said...

Such a sweet parakeet! I like your cement tube for the base much better also!!!

Pudgeduck said...

Dee- even my cement bird bath toppled in the wind! My back yard has so many birds-I turn on the sprinklers twice a day for them! The stand is beautiful-hope you can find use for it!

Diane AZ said...

What a wonderful surprise finding the white and blue parakeet at your feeder. I hope it will become a regular visitor to your yard. :)