Visitors in your garden.... (General Garden)

Member Name: Firefly54

Product:	General Garden
Date:	14/05/01 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Bring animals, birds and insectsinto your garden,, you will be helping to conserve and increase the numbers of wild creatures in your area.

Disadvantages: Tasty plants and vegetables will be eaten!

Water is the essence of all life. Plants that thirst, die; creatures that thirst, move on. Remember this, above all else, and you will have made a good start to bring wildlife of all types to your garden.

For a long time I tried to bribe birds into my garden with food. I succeeded in enticing the odd pigeon along, and even a pheasant or two on occasion. I'd often see a blue-tit, and knew that a pair had been in a box on the garage in previous years. But maybe the noisy, racing behaviour of my sons and dog was just a little too wild for the other wildlife in the area to cope with! However, over the past 2 or 3 years I have persevered, in the knowledge that if my garden was to be interesting, then I would need the help of furry, finned or winged friends to make it so... I have limited skills with flowers and veg... very limited. And that can make life hard when you have the mixed blessings of an acre garden.

So my first pond was dug, and since then, I have found all manner of flying creatures in my garden. On a warm, sunny morning, I get up to watch the sun rise, and the ponds are alive! Green and great woodpeckers, tits of all kinds, thrushes, blackbirds, yellow hammer, green finch, chaffinch, gold finch, sparrows, wren, warblers, and of course, our own garden robin, and many others. I now see more birds than I did as a child - in those days before pesticides, when hedgerows criss-crossed the landscape. As well as the small birds we see doves, a hawk, magpies, jays, rooks from a nearby rookery, and a barn owl who sits on the summerhouse at night.

Not only do the birds come for the water, they also come for the food that is to be found around it. Soon, the swifts and swallows will be swooping across the water every evening, taking the midges that dance across the water. An hour or two later, and the bats will be fluttering in their haphazard way, catching their fill of the midges as they pass. And another bonus... on sunny
days, the electric blues and burning golds of the damsel and dragon flies will flash through the air, they too on the look out for the little midges that hatch, into moving clouds above the water.

Around the water I've planted a wealth of berried shrubs, and on the bank, alpine strawberries, blackcurrants and raspberries for the fruit eaters to strip as they please. I always leave a few late apples, and the blackbirds and thrushes delight in their softness after the first of the frosts, enjoying even the Bramley's once the winter approaches, and they have turned soft and sweet.

Around the water, too, I leave large logs and stones, and the insect eaters can always be seen busying themselves around these, searching for slugs and snails and anything else that the frogs have left behind. Some of them, I daresay, are not adverse to sneaking the odd frog of mine away too... and certainly, I have to remove and guard frogspawn and tadpoles! But, by and large, water wildlife and birds live in a balanced harmony, and I have the joy of seeing a wide variety of birds from my window, and knowing that the acre or so of garden is providing them with a wealth of natural food; not to mention a wide assortment of water baths! It is rare to look out on a summer's day, and not see one bird or another enjoying a splash in the shallows, or sitting in the spray of waterfall or fountain.

I realise, of course, that not everyone has the space, or the mania for digging holes, that I have. However, most have the room for a small pond, even if no more than an old, sunken, china sink. The bigger the pond, the easier it will be to maintain, and the more wildlife it will support by providing a food chain. Plenty of plants will help keep the water clean and clear without any filtration or pumps - aim to cover 2/3 of the water surface with plants, to get crystal clear water. Even the larger birds perch happily on water lilies and other plants, but
their should be a shallow area with large stones for easy access by all. There is a wide choice of rushes that will grow in the shallow edges, and provide seeds in the Autumn. A sunflower or two will please goldfinches in particular, save some seeds from the birdseed that you buy for winter use.

My range of visitors extend beyond bird and insect life.... A couple of deer drop by occasionally, shyly visiting the pond farthest from the house. Last year a whole family of stoats came onto the lawn to play every morning, keeping the large collection of rabbits at bay for a while. I often catch sight of a fox at the main pond, and he turns to watch me when my movement at the window catches his ever-alert eyes. Occasionally, too, we see the lean streak of a weasel fleeing form the water edge, and have watched him hunt, even in the heat of a summer day. I’m afraid that I don’t begrudge my collection of meat-eaters the odd rabbit that I find them with – these, the cuddliest of my visitors, undoubtedly do the most damage! Squirrels visit the bird table, and thrive on the hazel trees that border our garden, and hedgehogs can be heard on a summer evening, their squeal a contrast to the deep-throated croaks of the frogs that serenade us on a summer’s evening. Toads visit too. Can you tell the difference between a frog and a toad? Frogs hop, toads walk. Frogspawn is laid in massed clumps, toadspawn in strings, like beads. Newts’ spawn is laid within a curled leaf, as single eggs, and their tadpoles have a ‘newtish’ look to them from the very beginning. As well as these amphibians, I’ve found slowworms sliding through the grass, but no grass snakes yet. Nor have I yet seen a badger, to my great disappointment. I have a heron visit in late autumn as well, rather to my dismay! Herons wade into the water to fish, and a wire around the edge of the pond, just a few inches high, will usually stop them, but allo
w other animals and birds access. I haven’t yet noticed a kingfisher – which is a shame, he’d eat less fish than the heron!

Remember that birds and animals will grow to depend on the water being there. It isn't like a small water bath, which might often dry up. They will become reliant on it to provide food and drink, so in the summer, keep it topped up, and be sure that there is a shallow area to give easy access. Similarly, in winter, the need to keep an area frost free may become necessary. If this is too difficult for you, make sure that you put a bowl of fresh water close to the pond every morning. Remember too, that as the natural food that you are encouraging crawls into hibernation, rots, or dies, you will need to feed the birds, supplementing their diet through the winter. If you have song birds, they will appreciate a little fruit, so give a variety of food, and see what your guests prefer.

There isn't the space here to begin talking about pond structure, but plenty of info can be found on Dooyoo within the pond section. Remember that if you add fish to the pond, then they will eat most of the water life. This will reduce the number of insects for the birds, as many of these spend part of their life in the water. Frogs, toads and hedgehogs will feast on slugs and snails, hibernating in the winter when food is scarce. Avoid disturbing any that you find in the cold weather, they don’t carry enough fat reserves to use up too much energy during this time. Water is not the sole solution to the problem of enticing wildlife, but it is a good beginning. I know that I am lucky, in that my ponds are often the only source of water in the locality, certainly on the hill that my house is situated on. So, when the natural spring-fed ponds dry up in the heat of summer (always assuming that there is some!), my garden becomes an oasis with its tumbling, spraying water. And speaking of tumbling water, rememb
er to turn some of those pumps off, or lower fountains, if water becomes short. The more it moves, the more the water evaporates, and you might be surprised to find out how frequently you need to top up the pond.

This opinion has become a very long one, yet only touches on the subject. Maybe I should try to break it into smaller chunks? The next step, of course, is to talk about ways to photograph the visitors to your garden...

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