Wet Morning - 20/6/2015

Wildlife Pond Project #2

It's been raining here all morning and so the garden is looking wet and bright green.  I popped out to check on the tadpoles and they seem to still be growing and I'm sure they'll have legs before too long.

Wildlife Pond Project #1

View from kitchen window

Naughty Cat - 18/6/2015

A couple of days ago I'd not long got home from work when we noticed our cat outside the patio door with a present for us.  My girls told me he had a Bat but upon closer inspection he had helped himself to a chick from the trees in the garden behind our house.

I love cats but I'm always saddened when he brings things home, even worse when they're still alive.  This chick was still very much alive and I didn't know what to do.  I had a quick look on the RSPB website to see what advice they offered but they recommended placing it back in the nest if possible. There was no way I could return it to the nest and I felt totally helpless.  

All I could do was put it somewhere quiet at the back of the garden and leave it in the hands of mother nature.  My youngest daughter didn't want to let it go at first and had wrapped it up in kitchen roll to keep it warm.  I agreed to let her hold it for a while before we finally but it down near the back wall and said our goodbyes.

Tadpole Update - 12/6/2015

I've not blogged about the tadpoles for over a month now so I thought I'd post a little update. 

They appear to be faring well and seem quite happy swimming about in the pond.  Some have grown bigger than others but still no sign of any legs just yet.  I think I read somewhere that they usually start developing into froglets from about 11-12 weeks so I hope I see some development soon.

I can remember being slightly concerned when they first developed into tadpoles that the two newts would decimate them but upon checking  yesterday evening I'm happy to say that there is still a very good number of tadpoles in the pond.

As usual when checking the pond late yesterday evening, the resident frog was there to greet me yet again.  The other resident frog seemed more content in the the smaller pond tucked away behind the Yellow Flag Iris.

Pond Project #1 - 06/6/2015

Pond Plant Care - 03/6/2015

I sought the expertise and assistance of my Wife this afternoon to help me tend to the Scirpus Cernuus plant in the main pond (wildlife pond project #2). She's the one with the greenfingers in our house and I needed her to divide this overgrown clump for me and repot the resulting smaller clumps.

I carefully removed the plant from the pond and placed it into bucket of water I'd used to wash some some small stones earlier.  These stones would be used later on top of the aquatic compost to stop it all washing away on me.

She then used a knife to cut the plant into smaller clumps and then set about repotting each clump in some plantpots.  Ideally I'd wanted to use some aquatic baskets for the plants but I could only get hold of brown plantpots.

She used some of the small stones I'd washed earlier in the bottom of the pots before adding the plants and the aquatic compost before finishing off with a layer of small stones.

Meanwhile, whilst she was doing this I was carefully sifting the water in the bucket through my net to rescue the tadpoles and other creatures that had been in the plant at the time I'd lifted it out of the pond.  In total I sifted out 7 tadpoles, 3 leeches and several pond snails.

small stones to stop the 

aquatic soil washing away

splitting the plant into smaller clumps

getting the pots ready for planting

one of the repotted smaller clumps

clumps now back in the pond

final positions

my daughter enjoying time by the pond

wildlife pond project #1

My Wife kindly trimmed back the scirpus cernuus plant in the smaller pond too and I added one of the potted clumps and some chinese cobbles.  Hopefully over time this new plant will grow like the existing plant which currently makes ideal cover for my resident frogs.

nicely trimmed

yellow flag iris in flower

late afternoon sunshine