Hey all I vacumed the pond today, sunk my plants and found 4 baby fish I didnt know I had. Someone in there was busy this summer. Anyone else finding anything interesting during your pond winterizing? Ted
Anyone else find anything interesting during fall clean up?
This year has been a challenging one from the point of view of the goldfish. The pond had the liner split on the bottom and it took me some time to figure out where it was so the liner got replaced. Goldfish went into the big rubber holding tank. Got a six foot stock tank which required a lot of digging to be put in the ground so they were there for a while resulting in some fish loss. Put the fish into the new tank which of course had no algea for them to snack on causing additional stress. The stock tank seemed to leak (water levels dropped over the course of a few days to just a few inches then it would be OK for a while and the water level would drop again). Collected all of the goldfish and back into the holding tank while I put a liner in the stock tank. Again no algea for them to eat (I did feed them koi sticks) causing more stress and more fish loss. ------ this is leading somewhere so bear with me------- LOL ----- Anyway, I also have a stream with three small waterfalls to circulate the water and was cleaning out the water lettuce and hyacinth for the year when I saw three small fish in the section closest to the pond. How the heck did they get there and how did they manage to survive?? This has a small drop to it before it reaches the pond. I will have to figure out a way to get them into the pond itself for the winter, if any of those fish deserve to survive it is these guys.
When I first built my pond I didn't introduce any wildlife but over the years they have found their way there and now I have allsorts of native fish, frogs and newts. I think this is the most interesting feature and I feel I am doing my bit to help them survive as there are fewer and fewer wild places for them to live.
Galant: Fish made it into your pond without assistance??? What, did a bird drop them in or eggs on plants???? What type of fish?
Interesting . . . .
Sticklebacks and they have bred since so I have several different sizes.
The newts sound exciting to me! We have tons of dry land lizards, but nothing that goes into the pond!
The newts are fabulous - they are the common newt but they get some gorgeous red colouring around breeding time.
Ok I have seen it all now. I have seen my dogs many times asleep on there backs with all fours in the air but this takes the cake. I'm down at my pond this morning before work and I see what I thought was a dead frog on its back at the bottom of the pond white belly up legs straight out. So I get my dip net and set him out on the ground still not moving. He's dead right? I clean off some leaves and walk around to where he's at and up he jumps looks at me and jumps back in the pond. Just didnt know frogs slept on there backs. Well next time I guess I'll have to tuck him in. LOL
That is toooo funny! A frog named "spot" ??
Thats funny you say that TT. I told my sons this evening about it and they said we should name him Fido
Other than the Midland turtle that wandered in through a six foot privacy fence and locked gate, the pond had its usual critters, one bull frog and numerous garter snakes. But.........I did find nine fossilized clams when I dug down about 18" to plunge a Japanese Maple pot into the ground to over- winter. I had to be restrained from digging up the whole side yard looking for more "stuff". Several years ago I found a flint indian hide scraper working in the perennial garden. I think there's been people here before me!
(The turtle has been relocated to an undisclosed location with perfect natural habitat and minimal human contact.)
Snapple I have family in Woodville up around you and my cousin finds indian artifacts all over up there. Keep looking when you dig if you found 1 thing there is sure to be more.
qwertyted - That's good info to know. I also dug up a pottery shard, but before I go calling it an indian artifact I want to take it to the local university archeological dept.
Snap when I get a chance to talk to him I'll find out who he takes his stuff to to get it dated. I thinks its Toledo U but I'm not real sure.
Oh yes, please. I would appreciate that very much.
Galant: You didn't answer my question-how did these "sicklebacks" get into your pond - do you have any guesses? BTW: I will be in Bedfordshire next week and probably will be looking in my Mother-in-Law's pond. I wonder if she has any of those fish in hers . . .
Sorry, I can only assume some eggs must have been on some plants that were introduced. I try to stick to native plants to keep it natural.
Snapple finally got ahold of my cousin he told me the guy he knew passed away a few years ago but if you take your artifacts to Toledo University's archeology dept they can help you out.
Thanks - I had been going to head 25 mi south to Bowling Green State University, but UT is a whole lot closer. I'll let you know what they determine.