Wildlife Pond Milestone

Wildlife Pond Milestone

One of the first things we did with the field was to make a wildlife pond, added a few plants and sat back and waited.

The Wildlife Trust sent me on a short course about ponds and apart from the design of it needing to have shallow parts, over hanging vegetation and edges that wildlife could climb in and out of the main thing I learnt was just wait for the wildlife to colonise.

30th April 2013 (click to enlarge)

The pond was started in March 2013 and by May 2013 it was finished. A few pond plants were added and the banks seeded with wild flowers. The edges were allowed to grow wild. Within months there were diving beetles, midge and mosquito larvae as well pond snails. It was amazing how many little bugs arrived. By 2014 newts had found the pond and there were newtlets as well.

As the long grass became established frogs were seen all over the garden then one or two were seen in the pond. All very exciting and the newts should perhaps be seen as the first big milestone but unfortunately newts aren't always easy to spot and even harder to photograph since they are in the water. In 2 years the pond has changed out of all recognition and in winter and early spring looks a bit of a mess since the flowers are yet to appear and all the dead stems from last year are still around.

16th June 2014 (click to enlarge)

The summer growth almost hides the pond but the long grass and flowers attract all sorts of butterflies, moths, bees and birds.

Last summer saw a lot of algae grow and I was waiting for the other pond plants to take over which has now happened.

8th June 2014 (click to enlarge)

8th June 2014 (click to enlarge)

Summer growth completely surrounds the pond.

March 2015 sees the pond looking a little sad but it won't be long until all the greenery reappears.

21st March 2015 (click to enlarge)

I had been waiting for the frogs to appear and yesterday frog spawn appeared.

21st March 2015 (frog spawn)

Late in the evening I went out to shut the chickens up and heard some croaking so I quietly approached the pond and although I couldn't see in the dark fired off a photo. I hadn't seen so many frogs in a pond since childhood!

21st March 2015 (click to enlarge)

Using a torch I roughly counted 50 although many kept going underwater so there may well have been many more.

The next day they were out in the sunshine but they kept disappearing no matter how quietly I crept up to the pond. I sat for an hour or so waiting for them to reappear and one by one they did.

22nd March 2015 (click to enlarge)

22nd March 2015 (click to enlarge)

22nd March 2015 (click to enlarge)

I also took a video using the phone but had to have full zoom so the quality is rather poor. The end of the video shows just how quick they vanish and they didn't show again for 20 minutes.