Other than fish of course. We have had a large green frog living in ours for the past two years. Last summer a smaller one appeared and they happily share the 100 gal. pond with a comet, two fancy goldfish & 1 shibokin (sp.?). Yesterday, I drove half an hour to a mans house to pick up some pond plants he was going to give me. He happily gave me a tour of his ponds. Laying on top of the water hyacinths was a leopard frog and he/she was so pretty. I'll be on a search for a place I can buy some tadpoles locally since the ones I found on the web are cheap but the shipping is outragous. I thought of getting a red eared slider but then again, I intend to buy koi and don't want the turtle eating the fish. This got me to wondering what kind of wildlife you've got at your ponds?
Gemila
What kind of wild life do you have living in your pond(s)?
Wildlife that ambled into the ponds, here...
Not including lizards and terrestrial snakes that don't visit the ponds much...
Yellow bellied turtles (hatchlings) Eastern mud turtles, Snapping turtles (evicted fairly quick, too destructive on plants) Painted turtles, Bullfrogs (evicted quick) Green frogs, Pickerel, Southern Leopard, Eastern narrow mouthed frogs, green tree frog, Pine woods tree frog, Grey tree frog, Squirrel tree frog, Spring Peepers, Dusky Gopher frog, American and Southern Toads, Southern Water snake, Eastern Ribbon Snake, Mole snake
Then there are the bugs... Some I just do not know what they are called... Whilygig beetles, Pondskaters, Dragonflies, Water boatmen are some that I look forward to seeing, they have quite a beneficial impact on the ponds munching the likes of mosquitos
Alas no salamanders or newts, to date...
Regards, andy
Wow Andy, I'm so jealous. Besides the snapping turtles and snakes, I'd happily welcome the others to my pond.
I had a female eastern painted turtle (she left after about a week), several wood frogs (this blew my mind), many leopard frogs, green frogs galore, too many bullfrogs to count, and classic garter snakes slithering around the perimeter. Occassionally, I get an American Toad that hops in one of the ponds probably only to rehydrate him/herself but other than that all I can think of is herons (eeeeek!), an abundance of song birds and raccoons getting drinks of water, and many dragonflies & damselflies. I love those little boatman mentioned by adavisus and we do get those. I have watched the raccoons and they dunk their food before eating it so they are frequent visitors.
Then there was the dreaded snapping turtle placed in a pond by a neighborhood kid who was told to get rid of it by his incredibly irresponsible Mom who couldn't be bothered taking it to a larger body of water. Ugh, took me quite a while to get that out. Nice looking turtle but it sure doesn't belong in a small pond.
I do get salamanders but they never quite make it to a pond favoring window wells that I have to dig them out so that I can relocate them.
So far this year I have had 4 cats, several dogs, opossums, raccoons, a muskrat, a mating pair of ducks (they put their nest in the front yard and swim in the back),other birds, including a heron, squirrels, voles, a shrew, chipmunks, 4 teenagers, two landscapers and many rabbits. No frogs, no toads. sigh. Now the raccoon is making a habit of climbing on a chair to look in the window. There are little muddy paw prints on the glass. Jessamine
Sometimes when the pond first thaws we get unwelcome visitors such as (one year) a mink who ate all my fish. In spring we get the spring peepers and the woodfrogs that come out and cackle for us (they sound like chickens!!! - no kidding!). About May the toads appear with their whistle-songs, Then we get 15 or 20 green frogs that come out of their hidey holes and take up their places and start to strum (like banjo's) - they stay all summer until the cold sets in, so between the lot we have a symphony out there starting about late march or early april depending on the weather.
When warm weather hits we've got a wide variety of dragonflies (my favorite), hummingbird moths, hummingbirds (themselves) - who like the flowers around the pond and garden; a newt or two and various tadpoles in the process of turning into young frogs. We also have a great blue heron who is an unwelcome guest, so we use a decoy (works most of the summer). Lots of goldfish (Koi are too expensive and I'm tired of raising a koi until he/she is 8 or 10" long just to feed the heron).
The first year we had the pond, neighbor kids brought us a box turtle...he stayed about 2 days and left. The frogs see to it that the mosquitoes aren't a problem, in fact one or two set up in a water tub outside my back door and keep that clean as well - what the frogs and toads don't get, the bats do.
In it's season, we usually see a Luna Moth or two (unbelieveably beautiful) and an assortment of plain and unusual, large and small moths. Then there's the deer, rabbits, raccoons - OH, and an occasional foster Golden Retriever taking a swim in the pond.
We had a beaver come by last spring, but only stayed one day. He was very active, diving in the pond (after our bass, I'm guessing) and only resting on the shore occasionally. He was Big! - At first I thought a dog was swimming in the pond. :)
On the ickier side....
Last fall our pond froze too quickly and a few adult fish got frozen right near the top. After a few days, the gulls flew in and went to work digging the frozen fish out of the ice. It was interesting to see the gulls strutting around on the frozen pond and pecking away at the fish body. They kept at it for days before they finally got the whole thing out.
We frequently get visiting Blue Heron since we have a rookery nearby. People are always amazed that the herons do not clean us out of fish. There's always enough left to breed a new batch of fry for the next year.
We are in a conservation area for Osprey, and occasionally one of these will dive in and yank out a fish too.
We saw six baby turkeys splashing around in the shallow end this year under the watchful gaze of the adults. I never knew they liked water. I like turkeys - to a point. Last year they marched around and snipped off everything at eye level, including all my tulips! They didn't even eat them, they just lopped the heads off. :P
Through the year, we have plenty of fire-belly newts, some unidentified salamanders, more frogs than I can count - though I don't know my types well enough yet, we have at least five different varieties.
Finally, we had a Red Fox hunting near the pond almost daily this spring. I think he was after the moles, but I wouldn't put it past him to go after a fish.
I've been planning on putting ornamental fish in one of our other ponds next spring - but with all the predators, I'm starting small to see how it goes. I'm making sure to install a lot of cover and hiding spots for them.
Beavers and Hummingbird Moths! I'm jealous!
This message was edited Oct 26, 2004 12:41 AM
I don't want to sound like I am criticising but it is possible the fish could have been rescued. Koi are coldwater fish (and most other pond fish as well) and they produce their own type of antifreeze. If you had put a bubbler under the area where they were the ice would have melted and you might have had the fish survive. Nothing ventured nothing gained. Jessamine
Jessamine, had I been prepared that year, I certainly would have tried.
It was not until I joined DG that I had heard of using a bubbler to keep a hole in the ice. I'm using one this year, I'll let you know how it goes!
BTW, the pond that froze over is a naturalized one. It's just mounded dirt to absorb the huge amount of mountain run-off. It's about 150 feet in diameter, and has no liner. The bass that live in there were stocked by the prior owner. I don't keep ornamental fish in it. I'm saving those for some much smaller ornamental ponds I have been building. I may someday introduce koi to the big pond, but only after I have more experience.
The picture looks pretty barren. We've only been here a short time, but we're slowly landscaping the whole 18 acres. You can just make out one of the gulls on the pond. The picture was taken from our front window.
Oh, I forgot about the time we had 30 deer tromping around the pond. That was cool too!
My pomeranian fell in my pond yesterday. I had left the gate open after working out there, and the next thing I know I have a soaking wet pommy. She hates water! The Newfies couldn't fit through the opening-boy were they jealous that she got a swim and they didn't!
LOL!!! We foster Golden Retrievers for Rescue and I have an awful time keeping some of our foster dogs out of the pond during the summer. Here's one guy we (and my fish and water lilies) were glad to see get a home. I had to stay outside with him whenever he was out or SPLASH! he was in! That year the poor frogs were at their wits end. But it's hilarious to hear "eek, eek, EEK! as they all jump for cover!!!
