4 Ways to Turn Your Backyard Into a Wildlife Habitat For Your Children

Today's children spend far too much time indoors staring at screens, and not nearly enough time outside. By turning your backyard into a wildlife habitat, your children will want to be in the fresh air. They'll be making observations of the creatures that appear, and helping with feeding and building. They may even become future environmentalists.

1. Birds

The easiest changes you can make in your yard are those to attract birds. To do this, you will need to add bird feeders, water sources and bird houses. Birds are wild and don't actually need supplemental food. They can usually find plenty to eat on their own, but migrating birds and those who spend the winter months here, need lots of food quickly. If you want your yard to be a stopover space for the newly arrived flocks, have lots of food of every type available. Do a little research on what kinds of birds you want to attract and then find out what feeders and foods they prefer.

You can't go wrong with fruit and seeds in the warmer months and heartier food like peanuts and suet in fall and winter. Putting out some yarn bits, pieces of cloth and animal hair is also a great idea in spring when birds are searching for nesting material. Of course, there are many birds that only eat insects. You may not have to feed these birds, but if you want your backyard cleared of mosquitos, you will want to add a purple martin bird house.

While we're talking about houses, you may also want to purchase a or make a bat house. Between the purple martins and the bats, you will have fewer mosquitoes than your neighbors. It's also fun to watch them swooping around in the evening.

One more thing: birds need fresh water all year. Put out some shallow dishes and have at least one raised bird bath. Heaters can be purchased to stop the water from freezing in winter.

Provide your family with birdwatchers' guides and binoculars so you can keep track of who has visited. Then work on attracting some others you haven't seen yet. This would also be a great time to take up photography and work on getting that perfect shot.

2. Insects

Beneficial insects like bees, lady bugs and butterflies can also be attracted by providing them with resting spaces and a water supply. Monarch butterflies drink nectar from a variety of flowering plants, but when it's time to lay their eggs, they only do it on milkweed plants. Be sure you let many of these grow in your garden as well as flowering wildflowers. An added benefit to having monarchs around is that you can track their migration progress online, since they spend the winters in Mexico. Your kids can even get Mexican pen pals via these websites.

Lady bugs will take care of any aphids being a nuisance on your plants and of course, we need bees to pollinate. Leave your dandelions alone. Often they are the first and only flowers for bees when they emerge in spring. Remember that the names "weeds" and "wildflowers" are just that. Most plants are beneficial for some creature or another. It may be time for you to reduce the size of your grass lawn and replace it little by little with low maintenance, perennial flowers.

3. A Pond

Next, consider a pond. You can build one yourselves as a family project or hire someone to install one. They are not hard to maintain after the initial setup. You can stock them with koi or regular goldfish. Freshwater crustaceans like clams will help filter the water and solar powered fountains will keep the pond from becoming stagnant and attracting mosquitos. Watch and see what other creatures arrive. You may find that a family of frogs or turtles has decided your yard is perfect.

Let your watery friends eat whatever insects drop into the water, but you may want to supplement with specialized food. You will also get to see the fish more closely if you have a dedicated feeding time.

4. Mammals

Let's not forget about animals. Most vegetable gardeners try to keep rabbits and deer out of their yards, but they can be really fun, even exciting, to observe. If you have a vegetable garden, but love rabbits, either go by the theory of planting a few more for the rabbits, or cover everything with rabbit-proof mesh.Hanging wind chimes near the vegetable garden may deter the deer, while not upsetting the birds too much

You are probably not going to be able to finish all of these ideas during one season. However, you can decide which you want to accomplish first, and maybe do a little more every summer until your backyard is a paradise for both your family and the area wildlife. Caring for, and learning about, nature will inspire and entertain the whole family.