Hi All,
It's been a poor year for my pond. It seemed that all my clumps of frogspawn disappeared without trace. I did see a tiny froglet leave the pond a week ago so maybe some survived but not in the numbers I'm used to.
The pesky heron was visiting all winter and despite me shooing him'her away each morning, he must have returned when I was at work. The result is I have hundreds of tiny puntures around the pond, so much so that it loses about a foot of water after each refill.
My ex-wife is an auction hound. She goes around putting bids in and selling the stuff on e-bay. One of her winning bids was a pallett of assorted goods from a bankrupt garden centre. When she unwrapped the pallet, the main content was a large garden shed and 6 full rolls of Butyl pond liner. The whole pallet only cost her £60 ! She got that amount for each of the rolls she advertised on e-bay. She had kept one roll back for myself and my son who is also a pondie.
My current pond is 12 foot by 10 foot and my portion of the new liner will extend it to 15 foot by 10 foot. It's a project I intend to start in September after the frogs & newts have left. It will be a wildlife pond again so no ornamental fish just sticklebacks.
Does anyone know of a tried & tested way to keep the Heron away? do those plasic herons work or the sound activated ones?
I had a beautiful pond last year, this year it just needs a supermarket trolley to make the desolation complete.
Any thoughts on the heron situation would be most welcome.
Thinking back to your shubunkin Alison, I chased the heron away with flailing arms and it dropped a frog into next doors garden. I saw it hop away into the undergrowth so it was safe anyway. The Heron also regurgitated a "Black Moor" into my pond where it stayed for a couple of years but probably fell to the same Heron later. My Newts continue to Thrive in abundance the numbers of hatchlings increasing year on year. The Newts love the Water Starwort.
Speak to you all soon
Dave