Wildlife July 2011

[Neil]

Maggi

It a sparrow!

[Maggi Young]

Blimey, so it is... never saw him there... was too busy worrying about the heron and any fish! 
Well, Sparrows and ponds are not much of an issue!

[kindredspiritkevin]

Hi Kevin, good to have you on the forum. Where in Ireland do you live?

County Limerick, Mark.

I have a new back garden which was started 2½ years ago and a new front garden started 1½ years ago. Virtually all the exotic plants that I planted, died in the last two winters.

I posted that post by mistake really, because I meant only to lurk at the moment as I haven't a clue presently about alpines, although I do have a raised alpine bed out the front as part of a red sandstone pavement. It has just sempervivums and sedums in it.


My present project is an arid bed under a glazed pergola area and the next after that, is a boundary of alpine troughs around the patio.

[kindredspiritkevin]

Oops!  Bit of a problem you have there, Kevin.... herons and ponds don't mix too well, eh?

Yep. We had, we estimate, 300 sticklebacks in the back pond (90' x 30') and I noticed recently that they seemed to be getting less and less. Then going to work on Monday I saw Henry, or is it Henrietta?, Heron and I grabbed my camera and took a quick shot. The heron was being mobbed by about six or seven small birds at the time.

The pics not good as I only had an ordinary lens. I zoomed in on the pic on the computer and enlarged the little bit with the heron in it. We have Moorhens who come into the pond each morning. We had ducks as well but I rapidly discouraged them as they are filthy birds, pooping non-stop everywhere.

I don't want goldfish as they don't seem natural to a "natural" pond.

I'm just wondering "If I got a big pike, would he do in the heron?"   

[Maggi Young]

Could be risky, Kevin, if you've got small children a pike big enough to do for the heron might be child hungry......

[angie]

Hi Kevin, glad you have come on the forum, lurking isn't much fun. Don't worry, I to dont know much about alpines just learning . But I do have a lot of fun on this forum and it's the best place to make new friends.
Oh I wish I had ducks, I just get the heron and he can take some big fish. I am fed up of her selecting my lovely Koi. Still soon I will have solved this problem 

Angie 

[Anthony Darby]

Thin, almost invisible, trip wires (nylon thread) on the approach to the pond may work as herons usually land and walk to the pond?

[angie]

Anthony that's what I have over my pond. I started just with the edges now I have it crossed the fishing wire across the pond. The heron I have always manages to get in somehow. Think he is just clever. I wonder how long they live for.

Angie

[kindredspiritkevin]

Newt in pond last year. He looks well fed!



One of the moorhens.



Piccie of pond from kitchen window last year. The vegetation has filled out more this year.

[Anthony Darby]

The newt is probably a gravid female Kevin?

[mark smyth]

Lovely pond, Kevin. Do you swim in it? It must be a magnet for local wildlife

[Olga Bondareva]

Hello everyone!  

Bug is laying its eggs at my Pinus nigra var. austriaca needle.



Another wildlife at the same pine.



Evening view at the foggy lake...

[arillady]

Really beautiful pictures Olga

[Armin]

The newt is probably a gravid female Kevin?

I agree Tony, probably Smooth or Common Newt Lissotriton vulgaris vulgaris. It was the first kind of newt I breed in one of my tanks when I was a child.

Kevin, you should look now for larvaes sitting in aquatic plants or on the ground.
Ready developed newts (length 3-4cm) leave the water around end of august.

[angie]

Kevin I am jealous of your waterlilies. Really nice pond, I struggle growing waterlilies, don't know what I do wrong. Maybe just not enough sun.

Olga lovely pictures again