My Wildlife Pond

My wildlife pond is an oasis, a sanctuary, a large diversity of plants and animals teaming with life. Together they create an ecosystem; living organisms that interact with one another. Wildlife ponds provide drinking water for animals, plant and animal food sources, and nesting thickets on the banks for turtles, snakes, frogs and insects. The small-water dwellers are eaten by fish, mammals and birds. So at a wildlife pond, all the plants, animals and insects depend on one another to survive. A wildlife pond not only enhances the planet Earth for us humans, but also for its other inhabitants as well and it's beautiful to look at, to boot.

My wildlife pond essentially is a pond surrounded by native plants and the woodland. Most of this property is heavily wooded, except for the small, 2-acre upward sloping field east of the house. There was a natural depression on a northern edge of the field where I hoped to have a pond dug. But, would it hold water?

The pond builder came over to test the soil and survey what had to be done. "You're lucky, there is enough clay there to hold water," he finally said. "I can probably have it cleared and dug within a week." This was good news to a new country dweller hankering for a pond. The next day he began the clearing and the dozing and within four days my pond was ready for some rain to fill it up. That, of course, took several months, but by the following spring, there were peepers at the pond announcing the new season with their sweet song, and one night I watched as the full moon turned the water into a silver and gold mirror, while a fox on the bank contemplated a duck dinner! I was entranced.

Indeed, soon numerous plants, animals and insects moved in. Frogs began congregating on its banks, water spiders came to test their water skis, various butterflies flitted about on the vegetation, and many song birds also began frequenting it almost immediately. Dragonflies appeared from wherever dragonflies come from, and took up patrolling the pond in their voracious search for mosquitoes and other insects. And on that very first summer of my ponds existence, I saw a turkey hen lead her young gobblers to the pond for their first drink of water.

So at my wildlife pond, plants, animals and insects can be found everywhere. In the pond itself there are catfish, and a fierce-looking creature known as a snapper. Even the bottom of the pond has life. That's because a pond is not very deep and the sun can reach down to the bottom to help life grow. At my wildlife pond, all the plants, animals and insects depend on one another to survive. And the pond conserves a precious resource: water.

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