to offer water to the birds

We got a little rain this evening, and temperatures are milder. Temporarily, I'm living downtown in Austin, Texas. We're well into summer, and the highs have been in the upper 90s and past 100. In the afternoons when the heat is up, the city birds, the grackles, pigeons, mockingbirds, and white-winged doves, they walk about with their beaks open, and I wonder if they are overheated and thirsty. Many of the downtown fountains and pools are dry, possibly because of water conservation efforts. When I look about for sources of water for the birds - away from the river and creeks - there are few. It must take some effort for the birds to find something to drink. Keeping the birdbaths full at my last location seemed to attract lots of winged visitors. Wrens would splash in the bath just minutes after water arrived. Deer would drink the bath dry. It's a small thing, but a very big thing to do for those who still struggle with the ongoing drought, to offer water, and our neighbor-critters are appreciative.

A lot of birds I saw today seem to be thriving on sunflowers - not the tall ones with the grand blooms, but the scraggly wild looking ones with a wealth of smaller flowers. They produce lots of black seeds, and grackles, house sparrows and doves were feasting in the alleyways.