We're Making a Wildlife Pond

First of May Update

Firstly the wildlife update; I think most, if not all, the tadpoles have been eaten. The chief suspects are a pair of Mallards which have been visiting but there are also large dragonfly larvae lurking in the depths and some big diving beetles too. Hopefully some have survived. While weeding the irises I was surprised by a frog. It jumped out from almost under my hand and plopped into the water! A little worrying is the fallow dear who come to drink; they could damage the liner.

The water is really crystal clear; I gues that’s a good thing and the barley straw seems to have worked well and the blanket weed is all but gone. I can see that the plants are all growing but they seem a little slow to get going to me. Maybe that’s just my impatience. I’ll post some pictures when they’ve grown a bit more when they start looking better.

 

Blackbirds feast on them if they're in the shallows.

 

Some pictures taken today. My pond still has a long way to go before it's full of plants but I'm more than happy with the range of birds and other creatures that are visiting. I'm just rubbish at photographing wildlife. I don't have a long lens, nor the patience to wait for a good picture. Also I'd rather not upset the birds by getting too close and having them fly away. It is a very nice place to just sit and watch and I probably spend far too much time doing that.

Cowslips below, have done well this spring.


Looking forward to having bogbean, iris and lily flowers.


One thing I'm very pleased about is the clarity of the water. The blanket weed is almost all gone. It seems the barley straw has worked.

 

It's looking lovely in the evening light tonight.


The iris was supposed to be the native yellow flag .......but it turned out to be purple. The bees don't seem to mind.




Finally we are seeing some biggish tadpoles. They've been hiding in the hornwort in the deepest part of the pond. Many many damselflies emerging from the pond in the past few days of at least two species. Also a few broad bodied chaser dragonflies. Common birds are coming to to drink, especially finches, including Linnets.

 

July Update

Some pictures from this week.

 

Two Year Update

Our pond is two years old this weekend! We set out to make a wildlife pond with the emphasis on attracting birds. All pond plants, except the water lilies, are natives and we decided not to introduce any fish. Two years on it is flourishing with a healthy population of frogs and two species of snail, who all found their own way here and the frogs spawned the first time this year. We have about four species of damselfly and about the same number of dragonfly. Best of all birds use it to drink and bathe and we've even had a Kingfisher and Grey Heron drop in.

The first picture is what it looked like two years ago when we had just filled it.


The following pictures are what it looks like today.

 

Stunning, absolutely stunning! @Redwing The nice thing is that it looks so natural now, as if it has always been there!

Nick

 

Thank you @Nikolaos . I seem to have put one picture in twice and forgot this one.

 

Fantastic!!

 

Really lovely, my sort of pond.

 

Absolutely beautiful!

 

My pond is a bit smaller(well quite a lot)...........