Wildlife pond?

bouicca21

I'd already been warned that it could take a couple of years for a frog to appear, if ever (and I'm really hoping for newts who might be even more problematic), so the pond has to be pretty as well as inviting.

andrewf75

I doubt it will take that long, I've heard newts are quicker to colonise.

Depends where you are and where the nearest populations are I suppose.

no1catman

IMHO - they may hitch-hike there as opposed to walking (or leaping). That is, birds will visit shallow water areas, to bathe/wash/drink - this could be a bird bath, a puddle, or a pond. The pond, could be a natural one or one constructed i.e. a garden pond - the spawn gets attached to the bird, and gets dislodged at the next watering hole, tadpoles emerge, grow and hey presto you have frogs.

Davesnave

andrewf75 wrote: »

I doubt it will take that long, I've heard newts are quicker to colonise.

If I remember correctly,the newts got to my new pond first, in an area where all the amphibians were present.

REEN

http://www.froglife.org/info-advice/frogs-toads-in-my-garden/

Useful information here.

JP08

Having had the joys of watching a frog "climb" a fuschia to get into our raised pond, and finding several round the garden, we decided to add a small wildlife pond last year. Its actually a preformed trough shape, about 15" deep and wide and about 6 foot long - on offer from a local garden centre for a tenner.
Sunny spot, plenty of plants in it, plenty round it on three sides. Easy access in an out, either via the plant containers or a sloping piece of slate.

Really quite disappointed given the number of amphibians we know are in the garden. Absolutely nothing has moved in ... other than a couple of water snails and a 1 inch long baby goldfish - they must have hitchhiked in on a couple of the plants.

At least the survival of the goldfish over winter (so tiny he's still black - when he gets a little bigger we'll hoik him out and he can join the others in the raised pond) indicates that the water is pretty good and no freezing issues.

no1catman

Goldfish that are dark - black/brown - can take some time to change colour. I have a couple that got to about four inches, and three years old before they changed.

andrewf75

It should be pointed out that goldfish are not a good idea in wildlife ponds - although you probably already knew that and have said you're planning to move it. It shouldn't put the amphibians off colonising either.

balustrada

I've put a video on YouTube of the frog activity last month in my pond.

The pond's approximately 2 metres long, 110cm wide and 45cm deep (6'6" x 3'6" x 1'6").

It has Elodea, Duckweed and Brooklime, all of which need controlling (manually - no chemicals) during the summer months. There's also a yellow flag iris that I put bare-rooted in a 7" pot and dropped in as well as a pot of marsh marigolds on the edge, which have been going for 20 years now with no attention from me - apart from cutting off dead material.

The pond does not have any fish and I NEVER top up the water if the level falls during the summer.

I mount a net, like a ridge tent, over it when the leaves start to fall in the autumn.

Frogs, newts, dragonflies and water boatmen breed in it.

Although the pond's located in a residential area, I know of at least two near neighbours who also have garden ponds, which is where my amphibian population must have migrated from.

The video's at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0YtCVchCVA

Davesnave

no1catman wrote: »

Goldfish that are dark - black/brown - can take some time to change colour. I have a couple that got to about four inches, and three years old before they changed.

I had some that never changed, though I suspect they were a particular sub-species.

There were always a few goldfish in my old pre-wildlife pond. They didn't seem to breed. I'm sure they ate some tadpoles/larvae, but for the size of it, they were probably part of a fairly balanced ecosystem.

OTOH, when I had a wildlife pond to look after at work, some kind soul introduced sticklebacks, which bred at an alarming pace and quickly reduced it to a stagnant mess, full of nothing else except leeches. I had to pump them all out, leave it dry and then start again.