NOT what I expected to wake up to this morning...

[AlanThePig]

Some of you might recall we have a rather large pond in our garden. On it we have a pair of ducks. First day of lockdown appeared ten, beautiful ducklings. They grew up, flew away and that was that until next spring.

Except I woke up to this......
There are ten more (seven in this photo) and I can only assume the warm weather has thoroughly confused her.

I'm now going spend the next few months fretting over bloody wildlife.

Alan, if you have a compost heap too, your garden will be an ideal home for grass snakes, especially if there is a goodly supply of frogs and toads (apologies to amphibian fans). Do you ever see herons hanging around hoping to catch a fish ?

To answer a few questions.
No, we’ve never been swimming in it. I’ve done a bit of maintenance around the edge in waders and it’s very silty so you start to sink. That coupled with the weeds in there and the way the levels just drop off I think it would be a risky practice.

Costs, not sure really. This year I spent a lot putting plants around the edge and obviously we’ve put the pier and pergola in, but it doesn’t really need much. It’s spring fed so fairly self sufficient in that respect. It’s mostly my time, but I love being out there so I don’t count that.

We don’t have a compost heap because it’s not really practical. Our back garden doesn’t have anywhere suitable and getting to one in the front around the pond would have been tricky.
I did take down Several enormous out of control conifers when wet moved in and chopped the trunks up. We made a stumpery from them in the wild part of the garden so in theory we could have snakes in there. There is also a hibernaculum for the newts that the local wildlife trust put in when the houses were being built.

Yes we have a heron. I’m happy for him to take the goldfish as we don’t want them in there interfering with the balance. He’s just barred when there are ducklings about 😃
We’ve also got a beautiful kingfisher that comes from time to time, though he is almost impossible to photograph because he’s so small and so quick.
When we first moved here DH opened the curtains and the heron was sat out side totally still. He thought I was pranking him with a fake plastic heron. Apparently his face was a as picture when he went out and it flew off.

That's amazing! I confess I haven't read all 24 pages, could you get a mini duck hut or similar for shelter? I honestly know nothing about duck care though!

Also @WildRosie we noticed something odd about the frogs...
Before we lived here the people in it just took the grasses around the edge of the pond down when they mowed and none of the garden was wild.
Our neighbours tell us for many years they had a frog exodus where the street was alive with frogs. They described it as sometimes being unable to drive for them.

We moved in and started to leave a few feet around the pond long, along with an area we left completely wild. Since then frog exodus has not happened.
We can only conclude we’ve somehow addressed a balance. I have a theory the newt population had been in decline and not eating the frog spawn so there were far too many frogs, though I’m not sure how that works with long grass.
We do now have twice as many dragon flies, cinnabar moths etc from august 2018 so hopefully that will keep improving to

It sounds like quite a wildlife haven although I don't envy the goldfish. I wonder if you might have some carp or crucian carp in there who are interbreeding with the goldfish ? They are closely related, so I'm told. I hope there are no pike, mind you. Pointy-tooth beasts with big appetites.

Do you ever put a moth lamp out @AlanThePig?

@WildRosie when the estate was in planning one of the neighbours objected on the grounds there were carp in here. Never seen any evidence of this though. Fairly sure there are no pike as I think that would have taken a duckling.

@Horsemad no, I haven't though you've given me the thought now. We have bats that come down for the insects at night so would be interesting to see whats about.

I saw what I thought was a flash of green Christmas ribbon in the tree earlier. Grabbed the binoculars and it was this little guy having his breakfast. Awful photo, I might have to invest in a zoom lens for my phone.

I think the time you would know about the presence of carp is breeding season - whenever that is. The males do battle for the females and these contests can be quite intense and near the water's surface. Rudd, roach and goldfish may have a more refined approach to courtship - I don't know! It's interesting that your pond is spring fed; that in itself probably provides a source of fish eggs, amphibian spawn, dragonfly larvae and nymphs etc. I'm quite envious.

@WildRosie

I think the time you would know about the presence of carp is breeding season - whenever that is. The males do battle for the females and these contests can be quite intense and near the water's surface. Rudd, roach and goldfish may have a more refined approach to courtship - I don't know! It's interesting that your pond is spring fed; that in itself probably provides a source of fish eggs, amphibian spawn, dragonfly larvae and nymphs etc. I'm quite envious.

There seems to be about 5 ponds within a square mile and a small river within that area. We think they are all linked. It's fascinating to watch the levels rise and fall and I keep saying I'm going to take a photo and document this over a year. The goldfish seem to come to the edge and surface this time of year so we plan to try and net them and pop them in a neighbours ornamental pond.

When the house was first built it was bought by a man who had a bright idea to empty the pond, fill it in and build another house. A neighbour who was here at the time tells me he tried to pump out the water into the drains, but as fast as he could pump it refilled. The street was flooding and police and council were called out, where a halt was called to his plans.
Upon realising he wasn't going to make a quick buck he sold the house. His sense of entitlement that he could come along and fill in something thats been here for hundreds of years to make a few quid still staggers me.

How have I missed this thread?! Love a duck!

I hope you warn the heron(s) of your plan to rehome the goldfish so they can find an alternative food source. Do you know which fish the kingfishers take ?

@WildRosie

I hope you warn the heron(s) of your plan to rehome the goldfish so they can find an alternative food source. Do you know which fish the kingfishers take ?

The heron takes the roach mostly, though he’s had a few goldfish which usually elicits a cheer. Kingfisher takes the roach from what I’ve seen.

My shit internet has finally deemed me worthy of being able to upload a video.
Here are the fish we filmed with a boroscope, I think this was last summer.

streamable.com/0a6g5p

Thanks for the film, Alan. I couldn't tell what breed of fish they were except for the one at the end swimming towards the camera. It looked like a shubunkin. What don't you like about the goldfish ?

What a lovely film. I could feel myself relaxing

@WildRosie

Thanks for the film, Alan. I couldn't tell what breed of fish they were except for the one at the end swimming towards the camera. It looked like a shubunkin. What don't you like about the goldfish ?

We believe what’s in there now are a weird cross between goldfish and whatever other species are in there. I don’t like them because I’m trying to get the pond back to it’s natural state and goldfish are an alien species to it.

I'm sure I've read somewhere that roach and rudd are, broadly speaking, breeds of carp. If I'm right, they're probably all interbreeding. Best of luck eliminating what you don't need or want.

How about a pair of black swans to keep the ducks company ?

Sounds like you need a pond day where it gets fished (local anglers club?) you stick them in loads of tubs etc and the anglers help you identify and only put back the native species???

I can’t see any way we’ll realistically eliminate them now, they have been in there far too long. I just don’t want to make things worse in there.

@RandomMess

Sounds like you need a pond day where it gets fished (local anglers club?) you stick them in loads of tubs etc and the anglers help you identify and only put back the native species???

Our neighbour has fished it, he identified roach, rudd and goldfish 😂 It's naturally weedy with a huge crop of waterlily as well so not really idea to fish.

When marine biologists et al need to remove fish from a stretch of water, they zap it with a mild electric current so the fish are stunned (not killed) and they float to the surface. However, we are now approaching the realms of silliness and likely large expense. But if the goldfish keep on breeding and interbreeding, you'll never get rid of them, no matter how many herons and kingfishers you invite round. Maybe asking your coarse-fishing neighbour to come back might be the only way to get the goldfish away and into your other neighbour's ornamental pond.

Well. Seven ducks will have cold feet today!

Wow!!
So pretty!!! Will be interesting to see if they try and come in the house...

They are a bit scared of the ice. Currently all under the willow tree in the only place it’s not frozen.
I’m lying in bed thinking I’m going to have to get up and try and break the ice a bit around the pier to get them away from the edge of the water incase that cat appears but it’s bloody cold and I’m cosy.

Wow, that looks stunningly beautiful, OP. I am so envious!

Don't worry about the cat, they are way big and bold enough now to see off any cat brave enough to try. And a cat wouldn't try on the water anyway. The pond will be warmer than the ground and air around it, so they'll keep in the water to stay warm.