John Masefield on having a bird bath

I noticed there was a bird having a drink of water

Here is what poet John Masefield writes about having a bird bath:

    . . . I once had a bird-bath, which was used by many hundreds of birds, & gave great delight to them, & to others.

    It was a stone basin. There used to be a stone-mason at Bibury, just as you turn over the water out of Bibury to go to Cirencester. He used to make them, & had a ready sale for them.

    I had this for years, standing on an old tree-stump, but as far as I can recollect some accident knocked it to pieces: I think a big branch of a tree, or the tree itself, fell on it in a great gale which did fearful harm here about 16 or 17 years ago.

    If you fill your Bird Bath with water everyday, put near it, if you would care for it, a daily meal for the birds. Then (if you go to bed at all) you might wake up & hear them saying

    "Ouak, Ouak, & gogologk" & the rest of it.

    Birds are very punctual things, & expect punctuality in their friends.

                    --John Masefield, Letters to Reyna, Buchan & Enright, Publishers, 

                    London, 1983 (page 420)