Great goodness.... what a change!!
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Story of a Wildlife Pool (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Jos Stratford
- Start date
Next stage was excavate out the section between the existing pool and the newly excavated ...and like magic one new mega pool materialises.
Unfortunately I was not there at the moment of break through. Apologies to all the frogs who were peacefully swimming around when suddenly their calm abode suddenly turned into a rushing torrent - must have been Lithuania's biggest waterfall for a few brief moments 😅
Here it is the morning after, all the area to the rear is the new part. It looks quite small in this photo - the water level will be much higher than this and consequently broader, most of the water flooded into the excavated hole.
Unfortunately I was not there at the moment of break through. Apologies to all the frogs who were peacefully swimming around when suddenly their calm abode suddenly turned into a rushing torrent - must have been Lithuania's biggest waterfall for a few brief moments 😅
Here it is the morning after, all the area to the rear is the new part. It looks quite small in this photo - the water level will be much higher than this and consequently broader, most of the water flooded into the excavated hole.
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Excavator man thought he had nearly finished at this stage, but I decided it needed to be bigger - I marked out an area at the rear to further expand both in length and width. That is what he is about to start in the above photo.
Fortunately disturbance overall is very minor - the feeding station at the opposite end of the adjacent pool is still full of birds, even the moderately shy Grey-headed Woodpecker visiting despite the iron monster cranking its arm and dumping yet more mountains of soil.
In the last few days, one more bird treat - to the one side, clanks of the excavator and sploshes of water being displaced, to the other the oh so evocative calls of a Pygmy Owl. Newly arrived, ajd hopefully going to stay for the winter, it is calling both evening and during the day.
In the last few days, one more bird treat - to the one side, clanks of the excavator and sploshes of water being displaced, to the other the oh so evocative calls of a Pygmy Owl. Newly arrived, ajd hopefully going to stay for the winter, it is calling both evening and during the day.
Original PaulE
Well-known member
Superb stuff, I was proud of our tiny Wildlife Pond then I saw this!!
Way back when I lived in the UK, I had a little garden pool that was probably about a metre long ...I loved it and could spend hours watching the stuff whirling around in it. Size isn't everything 👍
Excavator man did a good job lengthening and broadening the far end, so when he popped off home for the evening I decided he could do the same at the near end and marked out a new area for him to work on next day.
Enthusiastic guy he is, not only did he do exactly that, but decided to add considerable depth to this section, video below:
Enthusiastic guy he is, not only did he do exactly that, but decided to add considerable depth to this section, video below:
New video by Lithuania And Beyond
photos.app.goo.gl
And on a rather frosty morning, adding one more extension to the pool ...with this bit, length became about 75 metres
foresttwitcher
Virtually unknown member
When does a pool become a lake?
Farnboro John
Well-known member
When it has an inlet and outlet stream I think, but don't quote me.When does a pool become a lake?
John
Mine has inlets
Soviet engineers put land drainage in this area - excavating for these pools broke the pipes and they now flow directly into the pools. Keeps the pools full all year 👍
First species on the newly created pool - sunbathing on the displaced piles of soil, one late Camberwell Beauty
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Mary
Well-known member
Loving this Jos! Many thanks and please keep the info coming!
A very well named butterfly!! He's gorgeous.
Well, pool one is finished and nicely filling with water ...tracks of a Moose reveal an inquisitive animal, perhaps taking a drink from the water. Roe Deer and Red Fox tracks also in the abundance of levelled soil around.
Warixenjalka
Birdwitcher
Very interesting stuff. I will definitely follow how the pond will develop in the future. And I hope that the digging doesn't do any harm for flooded forest. Usually when people (in Finland) want to deepen their home shores (be it a lake or a pond), they do so by digging the shores deeper, when a more sensible trick would be to make a dam in a drain. But all the places aren't the same and if I understand correctly you don't even have a drain. I hope we saw Little Grebe and many other creatures in your pond soon. Maybe not the next summer, but after the vegetation has grown back.
And like some others, I am so envy your place. I dig "a pond" in my garden couple of years ago. It's huge - about 1m x 1,5 m...
And like some others, I am so envy your place. I dig "a pond" in my garden couple of years ago. It's huge - about 1m x 1,5 m...
Flood forest is unaffected ... despite being close, it is another side of a small hill and does not receive its water from the area of this pond. There are no above ground drains, just (fortunately relatively ineffective) underground Soviet drainage - this now supplies my pool. Pool is now full 👍
And with the first pool completed, it seemed a waste to send the excavator away without doing a little management on its baby sister pool:
