Anyone out there have natural ponds in their backyards? I volunteer at a nature center in Burke, Virginia, and I love it. One side of the building has a huge window overlooking a 2-acre (I think) pond. It is manmade, but very old. I know it like the back of my hand, and it has many microhabititats where I can find any animal in a certain area at almost any given time. It's chock full of snakes, frogs, shrimp, crayfish, tadpoles, fish, turtles, snappers, and the occasional raccoon, beaver, fox, or possum in the surrounding creek area. (Caught a MASSIVE snapper last Sunday with my bare hands!) It also attracts many other animals in the woods around it, including deer, squirrels, skunks, coyotes, rabbits, bats, hawks, owls, and tons of songbirds and woodpeckers. It kind of serves as a 'home base' for animals in the park. It runs into a creek inhabited by beavers, which set up an old dam under a bride at the far end of the pond. Water snakes like to hang out there, enjoying the shade under the bridge as well as the great basking spots right on top of a rock pile, making for a perfect hiding spot. On the other side of the dam is a large mass of duckweed, lily pads, and other aquatic plants that make a home for large frogs, small turtles, as well as eels, catfish, and sunfish. The resident male snapper patrols this area in the evening. The next microhabitat is the border of bushes and shrubs around the edge of the pond, providing shelter for small frogs and fish. Songbirds make their nests in these bushes too. A huge fallen tree makes a perfect basking platform for large turtles and the occasional duck. Next is a series of 4 small docks used for netting (for kid's birthday parties and catching food for animals on exhibit in the nature center). Underneath and around them are communites of crayfish, shrimp, and small fish, with a few toad egg strands in the plants about a foot below the surface. In between two of the docks is another bridge, crossing the other creek runoff. Underneath is a haven for skinks and insects living under the bridge itself and the rocky area around it. Salamanders hide under the rocks about 30 feet past the bridge in deeper areas of the creek. As you approach the last dock, you come to a sandbar/island covered in small aquatic plants, which erupts with frogs if you approach ir or throw anything into it. The last dock is in a shallow, muddy, swamp-like area full of tadpoles, crayfish, and baby turtles. Across the path that circles the pond is an overflow pond that is filled after heavy rains. It is full of reeds and cattails, with a small tree overhanging about 1/4 of it. It is a mecca for amphibians in the breeding season, and it ripples with tadpoles and larval salamanders in the spring. In the summer, there is a deafening symphony of frog calls, some quite musical, like the squeaks of the spring peepers and American toads, and some almost annoying, like the incessnt banjo-pluck call of the green frog. It is relatively predator free since it is inaccessable from the main pond without going over a hill. Right around this time of year, the toadlets metamorphose and literally coat the ground with little hopping specks the size of a pinky fingernail. It's hard not to step on them! In the woods surrounding the park, there are many batboxes, which erupt with bats every night, feasting on the swarms of insects over the pond. We have also places many snake boards around the park, which attract rat snakes, corn snakes, water snakes, garters, copperheads, brown snakes, salamanders, mice, fence lizards, and skinks. In front of the nature center window, we have bird feeders, suet feeders, and hummingbird feeders, providing a spectaculer view of the flurry of activity every day (All are squirrel-proof, trust me!). Squirrels and rabbits forage on the fallen seeds below, and hawks, foxes, and owls have all been seen hunting right in front of out eyes on the birds and small mammals. In fact, the resident pair of barred owls has become accustomed to humans, accepting mice thrown on top of the roof, snatching it in front of crowds of people. They'll even grab mice on top of your head with a hardhat!
Anyway, what I love about the place is that its in the middle of an urban enviornment but possesses such a huge variety of life, like a little Garden of Eden. I would love to have such a place near my home.
How hard would it be to build a natural pond? How hard would it be to maintain it? This pond gets occasional duckweed blooms in the summer, which requires the help of volunteers to clear up, or else it cuts off the supply of light to the plants and animals below, choking it. Could/should I stock it? It wouldn't be hard at all to catch animals from surrounding areas and release them in it. In fact, the nature center staff and volunteers (me included) conduct frequent rescues (more like raids!) on areas destined for the bulldozer. If we are notified of a pond of forest about to be paved over, that's where we come in, clearing the place of nearly everything living. We capture tens of thousands of organisms in a few hours, either releasing them into our park or elsewhere in Fairfax county. I could get a hold of some of these animals for a future pond in the works.
I'd appreciate any opinions you all have, as well as any pictures of natural ponds. Thanks!
That was a little long-winded wasn't it? Haha, sorry!
Anyway, what I love about the place is that its in the middle of an urban enviornment but possesses such a huge variety of life, like a little Garden of Eden. I would love to have such a place near my home.
How hard would it be to build a natural pond? How hard would it be to maintain it? This pond gets occasional duckweed blooms in the summer, which requires the help of volunteers to clear up, or else it cuts off the supply of light to the plants and animals below, choking it. Could/should I stock it? It wouldn't be hard at all to catch animals from surrounding areas and release them in it. In fact, the nature center staff and volunteers (me included) conduct frequent rescues (more like raids!) on areas destined for the bulldozer. If we are notified of a pond of forest about to be paved over, that's where we come in, clearing the place of nearly everything living. We capture tens of thousands of organisms in a few hours, either releasing them into our park or elsewhere in Fairfax county. I could get a hold of some of these animals for a future pond in the works.
I'd appreciate any opinions you all have, as well as any pictures of natural ponds. Thanks!
That was a little long-winded wasn't it? Haha, sorry!
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