Pond Life: The wildlife pond through the year

I thought it is time for a new blog post after being quiet all summer. I created my wildlife pond in September last year (if you want to see how I have done it have a look here) and it has developed really well. The pond plants have grown a lot and the pond is full of life; not just frogs and newts but numerous other small creatures such as water beetles, snails, water fleas, water boatmen and pond skaters. The pond is also a nice place for foxes, hedgehogs and birds to come for a drink, the latter also like to take a bath.

Follow me on a journey through the year to see how the pond has changed and what wildlife I have seen.

A cold and misty morning in February

The first frogspawn appears at the beginning of March

More frogspawn!

The tadpoles have hatched at the end of March

A large water beetle is visiting the pond

Everything is looking much greener at the end of April

Tadpoles are growing fast

Pond skaters are skidding around on the water surface, waiting for hapless insects to fall into the water

A frog is watching me

Geum coccineum is flowering at the end of April

Ragged robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi) is starting to flower as well

The wildlife pond in May

Ragged robin looks nice at the pond margin

Siberian iris (Iris sibirica) is flowering in the bog garden adjacent to the pond

In June blue damselflies arrive

The damselflies like to sit on the iris leaves

A four-spotted chaser is waiting for some insects to grab and eat

The pond at the end of June

The pygmy water lily, which I rescued from the old pond, is flowering

An interesting pond visitor, a leech, has arrived out of nowhere. I think this is one of the leeches in the genus Glossiphonia which suck body fluids from snails and other soft-bodied invertebrates

Here yo can see that the leech is a female as she carries her offspring around underneath the belly

The pond at the beginning of July

Frogs are in and out of the pond, hunting for insects in the surrounding borders but come back to the pond to rehydrate

A large dragonfly larva, which are voracious predators

The pond at the end of July, with self-seeded ragged robin flowering again

Common darters have paired up, on top is the male, holding the female by the neck

Common daters ready to lay eggs on plants just below the pond surface

August is hot and dry and many animals, including wasps, come to the pond to drink

The pond in August, with Gaura lindheimeri flowering in the background

Mares tail, marsh cinquefoil and water lily give a pretty picture

This Common dater male is defending the pond as his territory

The pond in October, many plants are slowly winding down and are preparing for winter now

November brings the first proper frost, the pond has a thin layer of ice, plants are dormant and many of the pond animals are less active now or are hibernating at the bottom of the pond

Soon the cycle will start again and everything will spring back into life.

The pond was one of the best things I created so far, it has given me so much joy and so much to see and discover. I love to just sit at the edge of the pond and watch what is going on. The pond has also given many pond animals a new home and is an important source of water for mammals and birds. I hope I could give you some inspiration to build a pond yourself. If you already have a pond you know what I am talking about :-).