Eight months ago, I built this Wildlife Pond to try to attract and help out some of the local wildlife. In this video, I'll share the whole story of how I turned a boring patch of grass. into a healthy and thriving ecosystem.
The initial idea for this project started two Springs ago when I built this small Wildlife Pond from some spare materials. This wasn't a traditional design, it was made more for photography so it had steeped raised edges to funnel the wildlife to the back of the pond, and since there was only one way in and one way out this was an ideal setup to film animals visiting the water. Over the next few months, I watched just how many species this little pond was benefiting and it was during this time that I decided I wanted to give them something even better.
A larger pond that's more wildlife friendly that doesn't only focus on water but also beneficial habitat features and native wildflowers. Fast forward to this year, where a few warm sunny weeks in March melted the snow and I broke ground on my new wildlife pond. I started by removing all of the grass and then dug out the different levels of the pond.
At its deepest, it's about four feet, which will help keep the water temperature more stable throughout the year. It'll also be a great place for submerged plants to grow and for frogs, tadpoles, and aquatic insects to escape predators. Once I finished digging up the pond, I immediately started setting up the pond liner.
I had never installed a liner of this size and I didn't really know what I was doing, but we got it in without any punctures or major issues so I'm very grateful for that. The pipes running to the old pond were still frozen so we had to fill it up one barrel at a time. And while it filled up, I built a small wall of rocks around the deep end so the sand doesn't wash away from the edges, and once it was filled to the top I used the leftover sand to fill in the edges and smooth out the surface around the pond.
I then dug a small hole about three and a half feet deep to build myself an in-ground observation blind. I didn't want anything too fancy so I used some old pallets as a structure. One side of the blind would be for sitting and one side for standing.
And because of the design I was able to make a small garden on the roof of the blind. I took some chives and stonecrops from the edges of my previous pond build and planted them here as a way to remember the old pond. I used some camo netting to cover the exterior of the blind, and here's what the new pond looks like so far.
You can see the old one in the back is smaller and not quite as natural. Before filling in the old pond, I transferred some cattails and bulrushes into their new home. The next big thing I needed to do was to set up all the wildlife habitat.
I started with tilling the area around the pond and removing as much grass as possible. This is where I'll see the wildflower meadow. This was hands down the worst part of the entire build.
I didn't mind the physical activity, but the work was just mindnumbing and never-ending. I'm sad to say that I lost 30 hours of my life to tilling and raking and by the end of it, it wasn't even a good job! For my own sanity I just told myself that everything will be okay and I slapped a "nature will figure it out" sticker on this part of the pond.
But on a brighter note, some of the first migrants were starting to show up which gave me extra motivation to finish setting up the rest of the wildlife habitat. I added some perches, brush piles, nest boxes, and dead standing logs for birds and insects to use. I even built this small floating structure with a bunch of Willow cuttings in it to help absorb nutrients and clean the water.
It's not the nicest, but it's only temporary until the other plants around the pond establish. The only thing left to do now at the pond was what I was most excited about: seeding the wildflower meadow. I spread two dozen species of native wildflowers in the area around the pond, including some species of sunflowers to try to attract more seed eating birds.
But before the seeds could germinate, we got hit with a massive rain and hail storm. I didn't know it at the time, but this storm flooded the area and a lot of the seeds I put in floated and gathered into low spots around the pond. This meant that the seeds would grow in clusters instead of evenly spaced out.
But luckily, nature doesn't waste an inch and as the warm spring weather moved in I saw that some of the bare spots in the meadow were filling in naturally with other local plant species. It was around this time when I first noticed how the different pieces of this ecosystem were slowly starting to come together. Diving beetles, backswimmers, and pond skimmers were the first to arrive.
Eastern Phoebes would use the perches I set up to pick off insects, Tree Swallows were checking out nest boxes, Brown Thrashers were taking cover in brush piles, and of course birds were coming down for the first time to drink and bathe at the pond. At the little roof garden, the chives I transplanted were one of the first plants to flower. Early spring flowers are an incredibly important food source for insects and there were a handful of native insect species feeding on the pollen.
Which ultimately attracted one of the fiercest predators at the pond: jumping spiders. Even if you don't like spiders, jumping spiders are very fun to watch, especially when they're hunting. To see just how fast they are, here's a clip of one hunting in regular speed.
You can barely even see it. I couldn't even focus before it took down this fly. So in order to appreciate their speed let's slow down the footage a little bit.
Here's the same jumping spider on a different hunt. It uses its large eyes to detect any potential prey and slowly creeps up on it waiting for that perfect moment to attack and deliver the final paralyzing bite. I find this so interesting to see in slow motion.
But the jumping spiders weren't the only ones having a nice meal around the pond. The local Tree Swallows were also enjoying the abundance of insects, so much so that after inspecting many other nest boxes, this pair had chosen one of the nest boxes I set up right behind the pond. The female would collect grasses and roots to shape the cup, while the male would stand guard and occasionally collect feathers to line the nest with.
But after days of hard work, before they could even lay their first egg their nest was raided by a red squirrel. At this time of the year, many birds nests are raided by squirrels, skunks, raccoons, and even other birds. Sadly, the tree swallow pair didn't return to the nest and although it was disappointing to see the first nesting birds of the pond scared off, the positive is that predation is an important part of a healthy ecosystem.
And the more time I spent around the pond, the more this ecosystem seemed to become the healthy one that I had envisioned. There were a handful of frogs that had moved in and started breeding, Eastern cottontails were forging on the plants, birds were singing, hummingbirds were zipping around, and I even got my first videos of a secretive species: the American Woodcock. With how excited I was for the success we've had so far, I really didn't think it could get any better.
But the summer had arrived, and it was ready to prove me wrong. The summertime is when all my hard work paid off. The warm weather mixed with some rainfalls gave the plants exactly what they needed to take over.
Most of the empty spaces on the ground started to fill up with a variety of plants and we started to get our first pops of color in the meadow. One of the busiest plants early on was a species called lamb's quarter. Much of them were covered with colonies of ants that were farming colonies of aphids.
The ants protect the aphids from predators and carry them in their mouth to the juiciest parts of the plant. In exchange, the aphids, which are these small sap sucking insects, will produce a sweet waste product called honeydew. And the ants will feed on this high energy substance, giving them a reliable food source throughout the seasons.
For the unfortunate aphids without any ant protectors, the majority of them got picked off by ladybugs, both the adults and the larva. Ladybugs did a great job at managing this pest because midway into the summer, I couldn't find any aphids around the pond. Around this time, I had noticed that the vegetation around the pond was getting very high.
Typically, birds don't feel safe using the pond if it's overgrown, so I decided to mow a section behind the pond to open it up as well as a small footpath around the area. I also did a 50% water change to the pond to try to reduce some of the algae that it built up. I then added a new feature to the area by building a dust bath.
These were super easy, I just covered a small area with sand and made sure they were out in the open so they could absorb heat from the sun. And within the day, the first birds were starting to use them. Dust bathing is an important step for birds to maintain good feather quality and the sand can help with minimizing lice or feather mites.
While I was building this, I saw a male Tree Swallow standing guard close to another nest box that I set up. And after inspecting, I realized it was the same pair that had their nest ripped up by the red squirrel. But this time they had a lot more success!
By the time I found them, the female was already sitting on five eggs. It didn't take long before the young ones hatched and over a two-week period they grew rapidly and eventually built up enough energy to fledge the nest. This was our first successful nest at the pond.
But during this time, to my surprise anyways, we also had our second. These Eastern Bluebirds were so secretive that I hadn't even seen them nesting at the pond until a couple of days before the young fledged. Luckily there was plenty of food for all of the young birds around.
The wildflowers were in full swing and attracting an abundance of insects to the pond. The milkweed plants in particular were home to Red Milkweed Beetles, Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetles, Monarch Butterfly Caterpillars, and some of our Jumping Spider friends. The Black-Eyed Susans attracted a variety of moths, flies, and predators like this Goldenrod Crab Spider.
Sunflowers were getting devoured by small flocks of Goldfinches, even the plants in the pond were thriving. The cattails and bulrushes exploded, and I'd often find dragonflies emerging from their exoskeletons on the leaves. The roots also continued to spread and absorb nutrients, and the water became so clear that I was able to see all the way to the bottom for the first time.
One thing that surprised me when I looked through the water was the lack of mosquito larvae. It seems like the predators have really managed their population well. When mosquito eggs hatch, they have to attempt to survive an onslaught of predators in the water like diving beetles, green frog tadpoles, and dragonfly nymphs.
If they're lucky enough to emerge as adults, they then face attacks from amphibians, spiders, birds, bats, and predatory insects like damselflies and dragonflies. One dragonfly can eat up to a hundred mosquitoes in a day, and that's why I don't really mind having mosquitoes around. They help feed a lot of the different species and by the time the fall rolled around, their populations were already starting to decline.
The fall was probably the hardest time for me to keep up with what was going on around the pond. I spent about two months out of the province for work, and when I was in the area, a lot of time went towards another big project. Which I won't talk about here but I'm very excited to finally share it with you in my next video!
So after coming to the pond after my time away, I quickly realized that something had wreaked havoc at the pond. The floating structure for the Willows was all ripped up, the cattails were trampled, and I noticed the frogs and toads were very skittish. Throughout the season they had gotten used to me walking around the pond and they were never really startled.
But now, with any movement they would just jump into the water and head for the deep end. My best guess is they were being hunted by raccoons. I've seen some frogs sitting under and on top of the floating structure in the past.
A raccoon likely ripped it up while trying to catch one of these frogs. I also noticed a lot of the smaller frogs and smaller toads were missing from the pond, which led me to believe that another reason they might be skittish is snakes. There had been a few hanging around throughout the season and I eventually caught one in the act.
Like I mentioned earlier, predation is a healthy part of the pond and seeing these snakes hunting just goes to show how the ecosystem has found its balance. Eventually, I started to do some cleanup and I retired the floating structure since the plants around the pond were well established. I also decided to keep the trampled cattails in the water to provide some extra cover for the frogs and tadpoles.
While I was cleaning up I kept seeing this kitten hanging around. Now I've seen outdoor and feral cats around here before but since we have a fierce and menacing black wolf that patrols the property, they rarely hang around. But this one showed up a few times and would just watch me as I walked around.
It seemed counterproductive to attract wildlife to the pond while also having a hungry feral cat nearby. I really wasn't sure what to do about it but funny enough my girlfriend and I had been talking about adopting a cat. So the fact that this one showed up shortly after, malnourished and in some need of help, it was hard to ignore.
So I found a can of tuna and water laying around and decided to see if we can habituate this kitten and eventually bring her home. She was very skittish, so I placed the plate near the gate and walked away and before I knew it her nose led her right to the food. Each time I gave her a little tuna and slowly moved the plate closer to me.
She was cautious but the second she caught a whiff of the tuna, her cautiousness would go right out the window. When she got close, I could see just how little fat was on her. It's hard to see in the video because of her fluff but you can see her hip bones were sticking out so she likely had a rough few months.
Over the next week, we were in a routine where we would meet up for breakfast and supper and I bought her some actual cat food in gravy, which it sounds like she really appreciated. Between her feeding times, I was back at the pond doing some important tasks for the fall. The first was to mow and trim the wildflower meadow around the pond, which is important to do at least once a year.
This will help cut back any trees that are growing in the open space that could eventually overtake all the wildflowers. Some plants produced so many seeds that they couldn't even stand upright, so I decided to cut half now and I'll keep half uncut so they can provide seeds to wildlife above the snow in the winter time. I also spent some time inside of the blind filming the birds that were migrating through.
This is where having the standing portion of the blind was really helpful. The birds would land all over the surrounding habitat of the pond, not just at the water. So by standing up, I got a great 360 degree view of the area which made it a lot easier to follow and track the birds.
And since I still never got around to putting in a roof, I could also watch the Geese and Raptors as they were migrating through. The migrating songbirds would often arrive at the pond in these mixed flocks. The size of the group would change day by day, but it was always the same six species.
From the seed eaters there were White-crowned Sparrows, Song Sparrows, and Chipping Sparrows. And from the insectivores there were Eastern Phoebes, Eastern Bluebirds, and Yellow-rumped Warblers. The Sparrows would feed on the seeds from the plants I left standing, as well as the plants I cut down on the ground.
And while they were busy foraging, the insectivores would perch close by looking for any insects to get flushed. Bird-wise, this was the busiest the pond had been all year. And since they were so focused on getting enough energy for their migration, this was one of the most entertaining times at the pond.
While I was standing in the blind I also noticed that something had been digging a small hole under the pallets. It didn't take me very long to figure out who the culprit was. .
. There was about four Chipmunks living around the pond and they really put a dent in the amount of seeds on the ground. After about a week, most of the migrating songbirds had moved on and things had really started to quiet down around the pond.
All the while, I had still been feeding the kitten every morning and every evening. She was still jumpy, but I could tell she was getting more and more comfortable with me. So I finally decided I'd try to pet her and see how she reacts and she didn't even flinch.
She just seemed so happy to get some attention, she'd even come on her own looking for some head scratches. I had to leave again for work for five weeks but my girlfriend would send me updates about the cat and when I got back, the cat was looking much healthier. And I'm proud to say we successfully brought her home and she's now acclimating to the house one room at a time.
With winter settling in and the pond now frozen over, this was the first time I truly reflected about the whole season. It was incredibly rewarding to think about all the species I was able to attract and help throughout the past eight months. Whether it was an animal just stopping by for a quick drink or another one completing its entire life cycle at the pond, it just goes to show how a step towards native habitats, whether big or small, can quickly have a positive impact on the local wildlife.
