In 2012, I had the back garden cleared out and moved the pond to its new spot. Five years pass, changed and expanded the pond twice. In 2015, I put in a stream — which was an utter failure. I was using leftover liner which then limited me to depth. The raccoons had a field day with their new found water playground! I did not keep it up and last year filled it in. sigh. Raccoons 1, kishik 0.
But despite the stream failure (put in to attract wildbirds, especially after watching American Redstarts hanging out and diving into the stream in 2015, I knew that any water feature, pond or fountain, would make a variety of the critters happy.
The space at the back of my yard is the quietest most peaceful area. I wanted a spot in the yard that felt separate from the rest of my property — yes, like a secret garden (ok, I read that book by Frances Hodgson Burnett at least a million times when I was a kid!)
On hot days, I can see birds bathing in the waterfall spray and drinking water at the pond, and then on the other side of the garden, watch sparrows dust bathing in a patch of parched soil. There are a lot of nooks all about— hiding places for critters of all kinds. Upending rocks that surround the pond I’ll find ants scurrying trying to rescue and retrieve their eggs, or in other hidey holes, remnants of mice nests. Mud wasps fly about when I do pond repair or maintenance. I’ve seen possums wandering through the back garden, raccoons climbing the fence to get in as well, and it’s just another area for the squirrels to play. The other day when we had unusually hot temperatures, I spotted a dragonfly, one of the giant sized ones, flying around and around the yard, then dipping a bit lower over the pond, plotting and scanning the landscape. Earlier this week, baby birds could be heard all about the back garden in their first days as fledglings. Feed me cheeps range from bell-like to sounding like squeaky cabinet doors. I watched them explore, eyes big and capturing everything around them, and then they would fall asleep where they were perched, waiting for their parents to come and feed them.
The frogs have emerged from hibernation and the koi beg to be fed daily, and this year as the water cleared after an algae bloom, I see more than several year-old fish babies. I have a coupe of mutts in there (cross between comet and koi), so not all the babies are flashing with bright colours.
This year, I built a new stream. Made it simple, made it deep enough to line with a few inches of stone.
I wanted a new stream in time for this year’s warbler migration. I wanted warblers, warblers, and more warblers! Last year, my garden welcomed a rainbow of warblers. This year, few but the regulars have been spotted. I’ve been despairing at the lack of sightings — maybe I jinxed the yard, building a new stream, moving my computer so it was right up against the window so I could easily look out for new colorful passing denizens. Today, as I sat typing this out, wondering when the winds would stop blowing and the clouds would clear (forecast, cloudy w/ chances of rain for the next 10 days!) and trying to find reasons like the failure of my eyes or bad timing for not seeing anything new - within minutes of each other a female ruby throated hummingbird came by to check out the nearly blooming honeysuckle, a least flycatcher sat perched, head doing the Linda Blair as it watched for insects to catch, and a veery hopped out of a fountain having just taken a bath. And then, a first sighting of a tiger swallowtail.
If you build it they will come.
But who “they” are may not always be the ones you expect.
“And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles.”
Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
Happy Saturday!