Coming Back to Life

'Pirate Wolf' spider. A new one on us.

With a recent run of warm days it has been fascinating for us to see our big new pond coming back to life. Of course, it was never really 'dead' and we have been able to see water boatmen and water beetles nipping about all winter, including under the ice on the few times that it was frozen. We 'finished' the pond last year in May and were soon rewarded with lots of incoming species especially the insects including all manner of tiny whizzers and wrigglers, only a few of which we could identify with any certainty. We bought a good range of young plants and some snails from Mimmack Aquatics (in Essex) and enjoyed them all as they started to get roots down in the autumn, but then watched everything die back to nothing (visible) as winter came and we have waited anxiously through winter wondering which of our species would make it through.

Towser's favourite look-out post, the bedroom window.

The pond has been brim-full since December topped up by rain and the run off from round by the poly tunnel. That can be a bit cloudy with mud flowing in, so our crystal-clear status has been on hold for most of that time and now, as it starts to fall bright again, we find we are peering into the murk, sure that things are growing down there but unable to see in any detail. The trays and planters of submerged plants are all putting out titillating green spikes and there are fronds of hornwort and Elodia expanding. Closer to the surface, in the 'shelves' we have obvious shoots on water mint, flag irises and marsh marigold.

My share of the hawthorn/ivy tree in Bob's link box.

There was great excitement on Wednesday morning when I saw a newt. This is our first voluntary amphibian and is probably our ultimate in the wildlife we wanted to attract to this wildlife pond, which we had deliberately not allowed fish into and have kept the geese away from. I had, in fact, lobbed a few newts and frogs into the pond last year if I had had to 'rescue' them from any grass I was cutting (or in the newt's case he had fallen into the vertical-sided half barrel goose 'pond'). This was just to show them it existed, but the frog breeding season came and went, with a few road-kill frogs in the lane but no breeding or spawn for us. Liz's newt-survey trainer-man had said that it might take the newts 6 years to 'find' us.

I do not think 'proper' conservationists are meant to import frog spawn by the well known 'bucket from elsewhere' method; you are meant to let succession happen naturally; but I must confess that K-Dub has offered us a bucket from the pond at his Father's place in Dublin, which is overwhelmed with the amount of spawn. We are going to sneak this in and see if we can 'help things along' a bit.

We have also noticed that along with all the re-awakening of small wrigglers and insects, we seem to have gained a few new types which we will have to try to identify. There is a spider who seems to sit on the edge-stones with smaller examples (children?) in a little row nearby, and we have seen them all nipping down to the water's edge, apparently to drink, before nipping back up. They 'park' in a tidy, narrow position with all their legs tucked in close to their sides. I have posted his pic on the old faithful Kent Wildlife Trust page on Facebook and got a proper ID, he is a male Pirate Wolf Spider (Pirata piraticus). Ah harrrrr!

Chestnut mushrooms from the poly tunnel.

Away from the pond, life is starting up impressively too. The spent mushroom compost in the poly tunnel is back pumping out fruiting bodies of chestnut mushroom for our supper. All the trees in the orchard are now showing bud break. There is plenty of new green in the thyme growing on our keyhole bed and the front lawn is looking shaggy enough to be needing its first cut.

If you sit by the pond, don't let your cake droop to hen-level!

Finally a very quick update on our baby chick 'Lonely Roads'. Things are not looking great. He is not making any use of his right leg. It is a shame. He is a pretty little thing and full of spirit and 'shout'. He started eating on the start of day 3 (That was a relief!) and now piles into the hard boiled egg I 'peck' up for him on the end of a pencil, and more recently also pecks it up himself from the ground if I drop it. He is a cheeky little thing and will refuse to peck at the 'proper' food (chick crumb) looking at you very old fashioned if you try to sneak a pencil-load of crumb in, in between chunks of the egg. Had he not the leg issue I would be delighted with 'our' progress, both him and with me learning to hand-rear chicks but his duff leg is a cold hard reality; he did not get many winning numbers in life's lottery, Bless him and we think he may run out of luck on Friday.

Aquatics for the New Pond

We were like 2 kids at Christmas today when at 10:30 the courier (Nightline) delivered our box of aquatic plants from the Essex firm Mimmack's.

http://www.mimmacks.co.uk/

We had been struggling to find suppliers of any decent range of aquatic plants in Ireland and then to find UK firms who would deliver to the Republic but then someone on Facebook tipped me off to a firm who generously gave me Mimmack's name. They have been brilliant and I would unreservedly recommend them to anyone in the British Isles if you, like us, have a pond to stock.

As well as being able to buy individual named plants, they do fixed price 'collections' such as Starter Packs and Wildlife Pond sets and they do them for a range of pond sizes. We wanted white water lilies and purple loosestrife but beyond that we also wanted a good range of native, wildlife species. Their bigger packs also contain a ration of water snails (in our case 24 common Pond Snails (Stagnalis). We chose a collection called 'N4' at £65 which cost £27.50 to post here (i.e. total  £92.50, or €112 thereabouts) which proved to have 24 species in it plus the 'mixed oxygenators' which looks to me contain the native Elodea and hornwort (Ceratophyllum) plus maybe another species or two. In many cases the species bag contained several plants - up to 5 in one case, so we have done very well. They all arrived in good health, fresh and bright. The water lilies and 'brandy bottle' plants in particular had fine thick chunky bits of root and the water lilies had leaf stems enough to reach the surface when planted straight into our depth; no need for the 'nursery slopes' stages.

For the botanists among you we have, in alphabetical order

Acorus Calamus native Sweet flag
Alisma plantago-aquatica native    Common water plantain
Butomus umbellatus  Flowering rush native
Equisetum fluviatale  Water marestail
Hydrocharis morsus-ranae Frogbit
Hypericum Elodes native Marsh St John's Wort
Iris pseudacorus native Yellow flag
Juncus inflexus native   Hard rush
Lycopsus Europaeus Native Gypsy Wort
Lysimachia thrysiflora native Tufted loosestrife
Lythrum salicaria Purple loosestrife
Mentha aquatica native Watermint
Menyanthes trifoliata native Bogbean
Mimulus luteus native Yellow monkey flower
Mixed oxygenators native  Mixed oxygenators native
Mysotis scorpioides native Water forget me not
Nuphar luteum  Brandy bottle
Nymphaea alba   White water lily
Nymphoides peltata  Water fringed lily
Potentilla palustris native Purple marshlock
Potomageton Natans    Broad leaved pondweed
Ranunculus flammula native Lesser spearwort
Sagittaria sagittifolia native  Common arrowhead
Sparganium erectum native Burr reed
Stagnalis Common pond snail
Stratiotes aloides Water soldier

You can imagine that we had great fun for 2 hours this morning in the sunshine unpacking this lot, grouping them by planting depth needs, then potting (or 'tray'ing) them up for sinking into the pond, or planting them between the stones of our beach. Some, the floating aquatics are just simply 'launched' into the water to drift where they will. Submerged oxygenators arrived bunched into half a dozen 'posies' held together with bag-ties. These we held a small stone to using the thin elastic bands which came with a lot of this and gently sank them into the depths. 

I have not done photos yet because mainly these were chunks of root with a few young shoots protruding, so not that picturesque but we hope they will live and flourish in our pond, (as well as helping to kill the red algal bloom!) and we will be able to photograph them in glorious blossom at some point in the future. The oxygenators like Elodea are believed to help with algal blooms by being hungry and fast growing selfish feeders who strip the water of excess nutrients and starve the algae out of rations. 

Great fun on a Friday morning.