Garden Ponds and Spring Birds

Includes a BIRD VIDEO ...

Nature in suburbia - this is what we have after replacing monoculture lawn with >50 species of native perennials. Early morning light on one corner. The pond and waterfallI described below are just to the right.

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Garden ponds and waterfalls

One of the central features of our garden is a modest sized pool with a recirculating waterfall at one end under the shade and, if you are a bird, protection of some trees and bushes. I started digging it out the first or second summer we lived here (1999) doing a stint every day after work - it was hard. Ever since it was set up though, birds of all species have made use of a small, shallow pool at the top of the waterfall in which they splash and refresh themselves. We have dubbed it the “Bird Magnet” and at this time of year when spring migration is in the air some birds positively line up to use it. The video further down this article gives you an idea of what this is. The following diagram will give you an idea of the basics, should you feel the need to create a bird magnet waterfall and pond of your own.

Edited quotation: I built my first backyard pond about twenty years ago. After seeing a massive pond on a rural garden tour, I was hooked. The sound of the waterfall was enticing. Dragonflies dipped down to drink and then zipped off into the garden. Squirrels would lean over the edge, taking sips of water. Water spiders danced across the surface. Water lily stems held their flowers above the surface, there were frogs and toads. A pond is clearly the heart of the garden.

You get the idea. The mistake I made those 20 years ago was to start digging in late summer, not realizing how baked hard a Canadian garden can get under the sun. I would come home from work and spend an hour shovelling a mere two buckets of packed earth and then collapsing - the job took weeks. The soil had to go somewhere which was when I decided to make a waterfall. The waterfall made all the difference and turned a standard garden pond into a wildlife magnet, especially for birds. The rest, as anyone who knows us or has visited, is history.

Then four years ago we began to realize that we were topping up the water level more frequently than before, but put it down to climate change hotter weather. Three years ago we began to worry. Two years back I installed a permanent hose so it could by topped up with the turn of a tap and added a float valve to stabilize the level hourly with water on constant supply. Clearly something was amiss, the hose feed barely paused. In fact, somewhere there was a major leak but I could not find it anywhere (it turns out a tree root had split a seam well hidden in a fold of liner). Having checked the bank balance after two years of covid non-travelling, we bit the bullet and got to work.

When I had built the pond I was a relative youngster of around 50 and could man-handle large stones with moderate ease but today, although fit enough for my age, I am sadly aware of my limitations. We called in the experts and found a splendid local company who specialize in water installations to whom we gave the contract. A week of work and a couple of tons of new stone later, we had an enlarged pond with a considerably enlarged waterfall - same height but over twice as wide. It’s a little more formal than before but the moving water is even more attractive than ever to passing birds. The raccoons were swimming at night almost from day one - see the video. On the last day of work the installers (there have been a lot of them - all nice guys with a thirst for our cold beers at lunchtime) turned up with some aged wood to drape around the rocks and a miniature rustic cabana of about 2 cu.ft to disguise the float valve that maintains water levels on even the hottest day. Years ago, friends in England (Simon and Sarah) had given us a ceramic frog-like creature that travelled to Canada with us and in recent years buried itself in the plants at the back of the garden. This fine creature was discovered by one of the crew and is now reclining by the faux-front door of the rustic cabin.

We had prepared the transformation by lifting and potting ferns growing around the pond and removing water lilies to large containers. The original bottom of the pond had been plain black liner while this new one is covered with large river stone, which in turn is disappearing under drowned leaves.

We have a (cheap but adequate) trail-came set up on a tripod to surveil the waterfall. The first wildlife to come and check it over were a couple of raccoons. One small and one large, like a rotund bear.

Now, as the second spring season of migration starts, we are enjoying the first avian visitors to the pond of the year and to the nearby garden plantings. The birds are getting comfortable with the flowing water and visiting more frequently. LAST YEAR however we recorded many splendid arrivals during spring migration and, of course, HOPE we can better it this year …

It is commonly, and erroneously, believed that to see lots of exciting species you have to get your boots on and go out into “nature” somewhere the other end of a long car drive. Not so, not so at all. Manage your garden so that it draws nature to you and allow the birds and bees to arrive, as they will. There is so much biodiversity to be found in our gardens and parks. Replacing that boring lawn with native plants, growing some bushes and installing a moving water feature will all help.

Much as we love watching visiting birds, even we can’t spend all the daylight hours glued to binoculars and staring at the water. Which is why we set up that video trail camera to record what arrived between our observation stints. My, oh, my don’t Robins and Song Sparrows like to keep themselves clean!

Day by day, more and more birds arrived … by late May ‘23 we had been blessed by the presence of the following additions to the year’s garden list. In order of their arrival, the following were enjoyed ... not including Blue Jays, American Robins, BCChickadees, Cardinals, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers and their less frequent friends too of course, but they are full-time residents.

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Intermission: Thanks for reading 1001 Species - Naturally About Nature! Entirely optional, but you can subscribe for free to receive new posts each Sunday.

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Warblers:

Nashville Warbler, Black and White Warbler, Northern Parula, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Palm Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Ovenbird, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler

Other cool birds

Grey Catbird, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Least Flycatcher, Great-crested Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue-headed Vireo, Chipping Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Song Sparrow, White-breasted, Nuthatch, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Veery, Hermit Thrush, Swainson’s Thrush

VIDEO …

This taster (10 minutes) was put together last May … best watched at full screen setting - click the icon in the bottom right of the video to enlarge

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I found the following text a few days ago on the CBC website:

What I am trying to say is that we need people to grow plants which they are no longer doing. Gardening is no longer one of the most popular activities in Canada. This native/non-native debate is like discussing "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin." If nobody is gardening, what's the point?"

I think it is observably true that while Canadians have, and enjoy, gardens it is only a minority that actually do any real gardening. When we first came to Canada from England a quarter century ago one of the things that struck us was that during the Victoria Day public holiday in late May boxes of hyper-colourful flowers are purchased and planted around the periphery of large lawns … and then often left to their own devices with little after care with most gardening tasks confined to mowing a lawn and even that often outsourced to contractors. Admittedly, matters are improving at least in our corner of Montreal, with a growing interest in native plant gardens and gardening for wildlife, but for all that, the CBC quotation above still has value. Getting better, but there’s a long way to go yet.