Your pond, with just a little management, can be a wildlife sanctuary attracting frogs, toads, newts, grass snakes, water boatman, mayflies, alderflies, caddisflies, dragonflies, pond skaters and water beetles, as well as providing a watering hole for birds and mammals.
Start off with a healthy pond
A healthy pond has good water quality and plenty of submerged plants. The plants should be native as non-native plants can be invasive and cause problems for other species. In Britain, Callitriche palustris (Common water-starwort) and Ceratophyllum demersum (Rigid Hornwort ) are common native plants.
Submerged plants provide oxygen, food and shelter for amphibians and invertebrates year round. In winter they will die back a little and hence oxygen levels drop but the wildlife is adapted to cope with this.
In autumn it is a good idea to check that you have enough submerged plants for the size of your pond and re-stock if necessary.
It may also be necessary to clear excess leaf litter from the pond before winter. Leaf litter releases noxious gasses as it break down – a high build up of these gasses can be a threat to wildlife. However don’t clear it all as some leaf litter can provide food and shelter.
Create places to hibernate on land
Amphibians such as newts, toads and frogs are as happy out of the water as in it during the winter, but they do need to stay moist and avoid freezing temperatures. A compost heap or log pile in the garden can provide a winter home. For suitable moisture levels, damp, decomposing wood is better than clean, dry logs. They like small spaces too so some loose soil, rotting leaves or wood chippings amongst the wood will help them furnish a better home. You can also create a home for them with a pile of stones covered with turf. The turf will keep the home damp but protected from freezing temperatures.
Some amphibians, mostly frogs, choose to overwinter in the bottom of the pond where the water temperature stays fairly constant. In doing so, frogs lie dormant on the bottom of the pond where they slow down their metabolism and breathe through their skin.
Ice on a wildlife pond
Most of the pond’s wildlife can sustain periods of being covered with ice. Larvae of mayflies, dragonflies, caddis flies and water beetles all over-winter in the water under ice. Breaking the ice is not necessary if it remains for short periods, for example in a usual British winter, and it will not make much difference to oxygen levels.
That said, the more mobile amphibians may appreciate coming up for some air occasionally and other garden wildlife may appreciate a hole in the ice so they can drink the water. In extreme winters when the ice is prolonged then it is worth making a hole to prevent the build up of noxious gasses in the water.
To make a hole, place a hot pan on the ice and let the base melt the surface. Don’t smash the ice or pour hot water or salt on the ice as these can harm wildlife.
Snow on a wildlife pond
Submerged plants do need light in the winter to continue to photosynthesise and produce oxygen. Ice allows light to penetrate below but snow doesn’t so carefully sweep the snow from the ice to allow light though.
After the dormant winter period is over it is a joy to see the pond teeming with life again in the Spring.
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