Winter habitat for wildlife.

Good evening. I'm here to talk about some ideas to help local wildlife this winter even in milder temps. I know brush piles, old evergreen trees, feeders and heated baths help wildlife in the short term, but what about plants such as holly, sumac and dogwood that help migratory and resident birds survive difficult and colder conditions as well as other animals? Could we also heat our ponds to help draw in more resident waterfowl and others for bathing and drinking. I wanna find out how I make a wreath for birds and squirells this coming Christmas. I also wanna find out how I make a food garland for wildlife this late fall and winter. Please help me and share more ideas so we can help our local wildlife survive even in a challenging climate we faced in this world. Good night!

Here are details of a British scheme to encourage young people to help.
making-winter-habitats
More ideas
5-ideas-creating-winter-wildlife-habitat.htm

Build Warm Refuges
Tree branches, leaves, and other cuttings and wood pieces make great refuges for rodents, reptiles, and birds.
Rock piles with gaps also help.
Build a protective, warm and safe refuge out of your unwanted clippings, making sure to stack wood pieces with plenty of space in between them,
which will provide protection for rabbits, squirrels, and other small animals.
If you have a compost heap, this makes a wonderful place for grass snakes, slow-worms and toads.

Blake said, " I wanna find out how I make a wreath for birds and squirells this coming Christmas. I also wanna find out how I make a food garland for wildlife this late fall and winter.

If I were making a wreath or garland for the wildlife I would gather what I had available.  Cedar limbs with berries or cones, any limbs with berries, etc then wire them together with some wire.  You could use whatever you have available.


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I get that you want to do something more like these:



https://www.thespruce.com/bird-garland-project-diy-385752



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https://www.wikihow-fun.com/Make-a-Birdseed-Wreath



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What about with recycled Christmas trees to add temporary shelter for birds and other creatures? And could a heated bird bath be in the mix?

From what I have read about Christmas trees, one would need to be careful about the source of the Christmas trees.  

Christmas trees from commercial sources may have been treated and thus it would be good not to use those for wildlife shelters.

Are there organic Christmas trees?

A heated bird bath might work or the bird bath might be placed in a sunny place where it might unfreeze during the day.

These are all cool ideas! Is it possible to add large ears of corn on our wreaths and feeders to draw more squirrels, chipmunks, crows, jays and other creatures? Anybody ever made a brush pile that shapes like a teepee with evergreen branches and stuff to feed and shelter wildlife?

I usually have a whole flock of birds of many different varieties around my place when it starts snowing. This year though their flocking in to the yard is mighty thin as of now. I'm afraid we're losing more birds than we are people!

I have a bird feeder that I fill now and then but when the snow hits the ground I get more generous with the Wild Bird Feed.
I shovel a large space around the base of an old tree in the back yard that holds the bird feeder and then spread the seed feed around lightly in a large area. Most of the birds get along together except for the largest of the crowd.

And I think all of them tell their friends as the fly in around 9:00 AM and again around 2-3:00 PM and just strip all of the seed out of the cleaned area. Sometimes I'll throw some up on top of crusted snow too and the smaller birds usually nibble on that.

They might have to go on a diet this year though as prices have gone up and I expect them to go up a few more times before the winter is over with.

Good ideas in this thread. Here in Germany most people feed wild birds with seeds and lard balls. Of course you also get hoards of noisy badly behaved sparrows (both field and house sparrows) but well...
Most conservationist organizations say you might feed birds, but much more important is a bird friendly garden with bushes and trees, some thorny plants, plants with berries, also if you have nesting boxes you could leave them up in winter because in very cold nights some small birds use them for spending the night there.
If you have some rushes or tall dry grasses you can also get crafty and make a nest for robins and wrens:
nest for robins (website in German but photos are self-explanatory)

I keep lots of evergreen shrubs, planted Beautyberry, to feed over winter and removed Nandina, whose berries can kill starving birds.

I don't want to make wild life too dependent (bears) on our place. Winter is almost "safe" so I just hang couple of  drilled out logs filled with peanut butter globs (organic, which I collect when on sale throughout the year for birds. I don't like peanut butter, but they do

Cool pictures! How y'all been?