RHS How to Create a Wildlife Pond by Kate Bradbury

Author:Kate Bradbury [Bradbury, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780241528709
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Ltd

Often called “toadpoles”, these are jet black and chunky, and gather in large groups on the surface of the water. They eat algae but develop a taste for meat as their legs develop.

MID-SPRING

Plants that lay dormant over winter at the bottom of the pond, such as water soldiers, hornwort and water lilies, gradually rise to the surface in mid-spring, and yellow flag iris and marsh marigold, the first of the marginals, start flowering, providing food for bees and other pollinators.

Around the pond, plants begin to grow strongly, and moths, leafminers, aphids and froghoppers lay eggs on their leaves. You may spot house sparrows taking aphids and caterpillars from plants to feed their young. Even the mud around ponds is put to good use by swallows and house martins building their nest cups, while some bee and wasp species take small amounts of mud to seal their solitary nests.

During a dry spring, a pond becomes a lifeline for huge numbers of wildlife, which rely on water to stay alive. You might spot honey bees resting on a lily pad to drink from the surface, or mammals coming to the edge to have a drink. Keep an eye out for the first bats of the year, which dart above ponds from dusk, feasting on midges, mosquitoes and moths.

Plenty of aquatic life is breeding in mid-spring, from water beetles and backswimmers to mayflies and pond snails. Tadpoles have hatched and are starting to grow legs. At this stage they switch from being herbivores to omnivores, developing a taste for meat as they encounter dead insects on the water’s surface, or even bits of dead snail or mammal they are lucky enough to happen upon. If there aren’t enough food sources naturally in the pond, tadpoles may turn on one another. To stop them cannibalizing each other, try feeding them cold-water fish flakes to provide the extra food they need. Bear in mind that fish flakes contain a lot of nutrients so add a little at a time, and make sure you see the tadpoles eating them; otherwise, you could create the perfect conditions for algal blooms to develop.

In a dry spring, a garden pond becomes a lifeline for huge numbers of wildlife.

Gathering mud

House martins gather mud from ponds to construct their nests just under the eaves of buildings.

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