Dams, ponds and water birds

Lilies on the dam

I believe that a garden without a pond is missing something.  Most of us love water, we enjoy just looking at it, but if it draws in wildlife to the garden then it becomes something special.  Perhaps the smallest pond I have had was in the regency townhouse in Exeter, and that little pond, although only a couple of feet in diametre still managed to house lilies and attract a strong frog population.  In Australia everything can be on a bigger scale and so here we have two dams, the 'Lap swamp' which is about 50m long and 30m wide at its base and the 'New Dam' that is very roughly a 30m triangle, both are around 3m-4m deep.

The Lap Swamp

Although there is a difference is scale, the same general rules apply if you want to have to have a healthy habitat. Ponds/dams work best if they have a blanced eco system and that includes water plants (for airation and flitering), marginal plants (for filtering and wildlife), water bugs (clean up & food for the food chain), fish (to reduce mosquitoes) and shallow areas (for marginals and entry/exit for amphibians).  If you managed to include all these aspects you should be rewarded with a water hole that attracts the wildlife.

The New Dam

I think that mistake a lot of people make when dealing with ponds is that they forget its an active part of the garden and needs tending as much as the flower beds.  Water weeds mustn't be allowed to take over or they can strangle the dam, too many lily leaves can create too much shadow, acidity/alkilinity levels can cause a build up of unsightly algae.  Of course the amount of tending veries on the size of the pond, but generally pond maintenance shouldn't be too time consuming.  Having said that I need to spend 2-3 days a year actually in the New Dam ripping out the Feather Weed before it takes over.  This involves me getting into my stinger suit and wading in, sometimes up to my shoulders, and ripping the weed about by the roots before tossing it up onto the banks.  It  makes great compost and gives me a good workout at the same time.

Wood Duck

Of course, get it right and you will be rewarded with all sorts of visitors.  Once we established the New Dam with weed, lilies and marginals I stocked it with native fish including Yellow Bellies, Silver Brim, and Australian Bass, Blue Crayfish (or Yabbies as they call them here) and Rainbows.  The latter are a minnow sized fish that breed quickly and feast on mosquito larvae, a must for any Australian water feature.

Rainbows come to a chunk of bread

Tadpoles in the shallows

The fish really add something to the dam, and attract the fish eating birds:

A Currawong watching the fish

A Darter drying its wings after a swim

The trick is to have fast breeding fish and to provide cover for them to hide in (lilies e.t.c) so that the fish eaters don't empty the dam.

Pied Cormorant on the Feather Weed

Azure Kingfisher

Whilst the fish eating fish can be very striking the insect eating lily trotters can also be fun to watch.  These birds are often less keen on flying and really appreciate some good thick marginals such as reeds, rushes or irises to hide in.

Irises are attractive marginals

Dusky Moorhen

Purple Swamphen

Straw-necked Ibis

Forest Kingfisher

And then there's the ducks. Our ducks spend feeding times on the New Dam and roosting time on the Lap Swamp.  Most of the year we have Australian Black Duck, Wood Duck and a single male Mallard for added colour, but around Christmas we get Plumed Whistling Duck joining the rafts and they are quite special.

Plumed Whistling Duck with Wood Duck in the background.

A Black Duck displays its scapulars.

And of course in springtime you get babies!

Very baby duck!

So there you have it, a whistle stop tour of the dams at Pardalote Holt.  They do take some work, but the pleasure they return is well worth any effort.

Late afternoon over the New Dam