How many of you have wildlife ponds?

[kiltoncomp]

Originally Posted by christina

We have a pond in the garden which has at least one toad, several newts, lots of damselfly lavae and many other creatures like pond skaters....Hubby cleared the pond of some algae because it was covering the whole pond and I sat there for hours picking out the damselfly lavae, baby newts, funny creepy crawly things and, I think, leeches (I couldn't pick up the leeches, sorry!). The one thing I am sad about is the fact that we never see the newts and toad(s) and we dont have froggies. The local heron appears to have taken all our fish, we often see him/her coming into land or just taking off. We (well I) would love some frogs, any suggestions as to how I can encourage them in? The pond also has a variety of of plants in and around it. The little waterfall provides bathing and drinking water for a variety of birds which inhabit or visit our garden. One particular Mrs Blackbird enjoys her morning bath at the edge of the pond - a wonderful sight to see. Any suggestions of how to stop this algae build up? It appears to be the result of the waterfall, but it is a haven for the critters.

we had the same problem with blanket weed until we inadvertently intoduced some fairy moss to the pond,(we were told the carp ate it- wrong!)
but it quickly covered the pond, which in turn blocked the direct sunlight that the blanketweed needs to thrive,
and apart from a few odd bits of it, it seems to have almost dissapeared, the drawback is that we have to remove the fairy moss by the bucket full on a regular basis, the water is crystal clear underneath it,
apparently it is killed by frost, but ours has thrived for several years now!

an upside to it is it makes a great mulch for the garden plants, and the blackbirds love sorting through it for food

but if you like to see open water, then avoid it at all costs unless you are prepared remove loads of it on an almost daily basis

Brian.

[Tringa]

Had a pond for about 15 -20 years now. Not really wildlife as it has goldfish, but frogs, newts and sometimes toads are regular visitors, along with damsel flies (don't know which - they are either deep red or bright blue). Lots of other insects too, quite a few seem to like me enough, to take samples from my arms and legs.

I'm not having a go here, but is the statistic on ponds really true? Land makes up about 29% of the earth's surface, and within this there are ponds, lakes, rivers etc. I'd be surprised if these which make up only a fraction of the 29% could absorb more CO2 than the 71% which is ocean.

[christina]

Originally Posted by kiltoncomp

we had the same problem with blanket weed until we inadvertently intoduced some fairy moss to the pond,(we were told the carp ate it- wrong!)
but it quickly covered the pond, which in turn blocked the direct sunlight that the blanketweed needs to thrive,
and apart from a few odd bits of it, it seems to have almost dissapeared, the drawback is that we have to remove the fairy moss by the bucket full on a regular basis, the water is crystal clear underneath it,
apparently it is killed by frost, but ours has thrived for several years now!

an upside to it is it makes a great mulch for the garden plants, and the blackbirds love sorting through it for food

but if you like to see open water, then avoid it at all costs unless you are prepared remove loads of it on an almost daily basis

Brian.

We did have a problem with blanket weed a few years ago but a pair of mandarin ducks used to visit the pond and appeared to enjoy eating it. We have had no problems since. No blanket weed, now no mandarin ducks lol...

[hobo1]

We have a wildlife pond and a koi pond, in the wildlife pond i have counted at least 21 newts, and at least 35 frogs when they were mating, we always have lots of frog spawn and froglets?, we also have a good sized wildlife area and get visited by numerous different birds, we are trying to work out the best way to make the pond bigger as it has a liner. su.

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by Tringa

I'm not having a go here, but is the statistic on ponds really true? Land makes up about 29% of the earth's surface, and within this there are ponds, lakes, rivers etc. I'd be surprised if these which make up only a fraction of the 29% could absorb more CO2 than the 71% which is ocean.

That was my intial thought, but most of that ocean is, in terms of nutrients, a desert so very little alage grows - hence the add iron to the sea and it traps more CO2 plans. Ponds on the other hand are usually nutrient rich and stuffed with CO2 absorbing plants which trap the CO2 in the bottom sediment when they die. So I guess its possible but I have no idea if its true!

Back to the subject. Ive had a pond for years but it is now all but inaccessable to all but invertebrates and amphibians due to sucessive ofsted inspections requiring a smaller and smaller grid to cover the pond in case the child should come into contact with pond water. Good old viles disease I guess.

[acherontia]

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

That was my intial thought, but most of that ocean is, in terms of nutrients, a desert so very little alage grows - hence the add iron to the sea and it traps more CO2 plans. Ponds on the other hand are usually nutrient rich and stuffed with CO2 absorbing plants which trap the CO2 in the bottom sediment when they die. So I guess its possible but I have no idea if its true!

Back to the subject. Ive had a pond for years but it is now all but inaccessable to all but invertebrates and amphibians due to sucessive ofsted inspections requiring a smaller and smaller grid to cover the pond in case the child should come into contact with pond water. Good old viles disease I guess.

I still haven't traced where that info came from re carbon absorption - OH says it was on a college handout but as he has to hand in a 'Man's Impact on the Environment' brief that he's chosen to link to ponds he's not had time to root it out. Could be he remembered it wrong - I really don't know right now!

What is health and safety coming to these days? Daft isn't it? I was looking at a pond on public land the other day and some lads were asking 'What have you found?' when we saw a robber fly. It crossed my mind that perhaps one day some jobsworth would put out an order for fencing round it...

My pond - it's only little but it seems to do a good job.
Yesterday I was weeding the pebbly bit and a female blackbird bathed about 15" from my hands and looked me straight in the eye. I wasn't fooled - I knew she had a youngster in the holly bush at the back of the pond!



Acherontia