you certainly taken on a project there ? is it as big as < jonny my land kingdoms pond ?? looks to to me . great to see the pond in a years time with all flowers and wild life. and watch those herons.

I love ponds Dave. We have two, both dug by my old man, a biggish one under trees, and a smaller one by the kitchen. Both are very popular with the birds and frogs.

Unfortunately we have a lot of invasive duckweed which forms a blanket over both in the summer. Drives us mad!

I'm sure yours will be fantastic Dave, and very satisfying to do. Will you put in a pump too or leave things to nature? Look forward to updates.

I'd agree with that lullieowl, too busy trying to do too many things to properly ID it so thanks.
Dave
Like your signature Fastdrew, busy as I am we must chat some time.

hey dave, thats more like it!! Amazing how much work a couple of hours with a jcb can save! its looking good already, even though you can't do any more for now it looks like it will still be of huge benefit to the wildlife as it is! Good luck with the rest of the project

Brilliant Dave - even though it's not finished, you're already getting lots of wildlife! If we ever have any nice weather, please, when you have a moment or two, take some shots in the sun! I love ongoing projects - although I used to be someone who wanted to get it all done as fast as I could - bit these days, due to lack of time, I like to watch things grow & develop slowly!

Great shots Dave. Great project as well. Looking forward to watching this thread continue.
Best wises.

Thanks for your comments everyone the pigeons think it’s a great bath & I've Chiffchaff as well as the Whitethroat that have appeared which is why I got confused with the photo.

I've just got a 4th HLS to do so now have around 1,000 acres to do full surveys on including 4 raised water level management plans. I would have turned the last one down but a field officer asked me to do it & it's on the edge of the lakes with Species Rich Hay Meadows 9-15 different plants per sq meter, 4 Gill Woodlands with Waterfalls & important historic buildings including a very large water wheel.

I'm afraid I will definitely have to drastically reduce my input to FON for the next few months as I'll have my hands full with looking after parents as well as all my work & Gill working 40/45 hrs a week, 5 phone calls from mum today & Gill's mum getting worse with dementia & her garden to look after on top of all we've got at home .

When things calm down I’ll be back (not that I’m actually going but you know what I mean) & hopefully have some nice threads to post as I’ll have my camera with me all the time.

Dave

Slight update on the pond, no further work done far to busy & too much water, but we cut an old horse shoe drain & the pond gets 18" of water in after a heavy rainfall, I'm thinking of trying to find an old pump & digging backup the drain & installing it so when the pond liner is in place, rather than the drain always standing with water because it has nowhere to go I can pump it into the pond I only need to find an old-fashioned black pump in working order.
My one fear is that my wife wants to turn it into a "normal" pond not a wildlife pond with nothing but native plants & no fish, just water & bog plants, together with hopefully a large colony of frogs & some dragon flies & damsel flies & the additional bird life that will be attracted to it.

While it will be months before I find time to get any further with my pond I thought after the heavy rains I might as well post these photos after the heavy rain we’ve been having, the pond is at present fed by a field drain & as I’ve blocked up the outlet after very heavy rain it fills up. These photos show the level it will be when I eventually get it emptied, stones cleared from the bottom, a sand layer put down, followed by some form of liner then poor soil for growing the pond & bog plants.










The far end of the pond will be a bog area taking up around half the total area, this will be extended back slightly further & the sides sloped down to the pond more by the removal of soil from beneath the grass.
To the left of the pond is the Blackthorn Hedge which has been in 18 months & is at present protected from rabbits, this will remain for another 12 months minimum till the hedge is well established. The hedge is full of water mint which was in the turf used to build up the hedge bank



The last two views are from my office window which if we can afford to modernise the house as we would like will move 6` closer to the pond & bog area.

The first true visitor a Southern Hawker to our unfinished pond (thanks Sharon & Birdie for the ID), Isn't he a beauty, he let me get within 3` to get a good photo

Red Kite have you thought about leaving some of the stones and rocks in the bottom?

It may encourage pond life that actually like hidey holes?

Or is it not possible due to design?

Quite possible if I bed them on soil & see there are no sharp edges to puncture the liner, good idea, thanks.

your pond looks great Dave,is interesting to see how its been made x

Great project Dave. I can only dream of having something like that.

Looking Great Dave, hope the Southern Hawker is a sign of much more wildlife to come.