It seemed like such a good idea to take advantage of the low water
levels in the pond due to the prolonged drought. There was so little
visible water among the overgrown plants that I didn't realise we still
had tadpoles. Trying to cut away all the overgrowth without losing the
tiny little frogs and toads was difficult. I compromised by leaving the
floating mass of miriophyllum (sp?) until a later date so that the
wildlife had somewhere to hide. We managed to make a proper-ish overflow
just before the long overdue rain arrived and topped up the pond. All
good so far, even the resident newt is still there.

Unfortunately all the newly visible water attracted the first heron I
have seen in the garden for years. I do wish that I had had a camera. It
was trying to land on the top of the nearest obvious tree, flapping
wildly while making several attempts to put it's feet down - on the
monkey puzzle! (It gave up and flew off down the road to a bigger pond.)

In article <uIydnWqVqe_rBXT_nZ2dnUU7-
WHNnZ2d@brightview.co.uk>, tahiri2@tanygraig.force9.co.uk
says...
>
> It seemed like such a good idea to take advantage of the low water
> levels in the pond due to the prolonged drought. There was so little
> visible water among the overgrown plants that I didn't realise we still
> had tadpoles. Trying to cut away all the overgrowth without losing the
> tiny little frogs and toads was difficult. I compromised by leaving the
> floating mass of miriophyllum (sp?) until a later date so that the
> wildlife had somewhere to hide. We managed to make a proper-ish overflow
> just before the long overdue rain arrived and topped up the pond. All
> good so far, even the resident newt is still there.
>
> Unfortunately all the newly visible water attracted the first heron I
> have seen in the garden for years. I do wish that I had had a camera. It
> was trying to land on the top of the nearest obvious tree, flapping
> wildly while making several attempts to put it's feet down - on the
> monkey puzzle! (It gave up and flew off down the road to a bigger pond.)

Our dried-up pond has fresh deer tracks in the mud.

:-)

Janet

On 03/08/2022 12:18, Janet wrote:
> In article <uIydnWqVqe_rBXT_nZ2dnUU7-
> WHNnZ2d@brightview.co.uk>, tahiri2@tanygraig.force9.co.uk
> says...
>>
>> It seemed like such a good idea to take advantage of the low water
>> levels in the pond due to the prolonged drought. There was so little
>> visible water among the overgrown plants that I didn't realise we still
>> had tadpoles. Trying to cut away all the overgrowth without losing the
>> tiny little frogs and toads was difficult. I compromised by leaving the
>> floating mass of miriophyllum (sp?) until a later date so that the
>> wildlife had somewhere to hide. We managed to make a proper-ish overflow
>> just before the long overdue rain arrived and topped up the pond. All
>> good so far, even the resident newt is still there.
>>
>> Unfortunately all the newly visible water attracted the first heron I
>> have seen in the garden for years. I do wish that I had had a camera. It
>> was trying to land on the top of the nearest obvious tree, flapping
>> wildly while making several attempts to put it's feet down - on the
>> monkey puzzle! (It gave up and flew off down the road to a bigger pond.)
>
> Our dried-up pond has fresh deer tracks in the mud.
>
> :-)

There are a couple of ponds near me that say "Beware Deep Water" and
have life belts. They are totally devoid of water and the base clay
layer has really deep cracks in it - unclear if they will recover.

You could injure yourself falling into the void now - which is probably
more dangerous than when it had water in.

A slightly larger shallower pond still has a trickle going in and the
bullrushes are preventing the sun from baking the middle part bone dry.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown