If you re lucky enough to have a natural pond, stream, vernal pool, or other wetland on your property, make sure to preserve or restore it as these are excellent aquatic habitats. A small pond set into the ground provides water for drinking and bathing, as well as cover and reproductive areas for small fish, insects, amphibians, and reptiles. However you decide to provide water, make sure you do so year round. This can easily be done with a thermostatically controlled bird bath heater to provide water during subfreezing weather when the need for water is critical. Cover When choosing your plants, make sure to include at least one good clump of evergreen trees and shrubs to provide year-round protective cover from weather and predators.
Good choices are juniper, hollies, and live oaks, as they provide food as well as cover.
You should also plant deciduous shrubs to offer effective summer cover for nesting and escape from predators. Rock, log, and mulch piles also offer good cover. Small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and a great variety of insects and other small animals find homes in these structures, which are easily constructed. Places to Raise Young Evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs provide nesting areas for birds. Rabbits, shrews, mice, snakes, and salamanders lay their eggs or raise young under boughs of plants as well as in the rock, log, or mulch piles.