manmade flight pond.....

crackcrack30

hi guys,

I have 2 & 1/2 acres of secluded, cutaway, swampy bog, hidden behind a nice treeline, its unsuitable for turf , stock or trees....
I'm thinking of digging a few ponds when i have a digger in to see if i could entice some duck in, for a pet project.
There is a well populated river of malard only 1 mile away......

The question is - will it work due to the fact that there is no fresh water running thru this swamp to keep it fresh?

any thoughts?....

4200fps

Ah goodman your doing the right job for the duck. It could be a great success,about the water its hard to know.after a few weeks especially bog water cant be too bad.the dirt will settle and the water should go clear.i wouldnt dig them too deep as they like shallow parts too. I'd say you be ok now but getting the duck in is the thing, you might have to feed it or get a few duck that are clipped maybe and peg them in to attract ducks in. I'm guessing but i think it will work good.

pheasntstalker

ya lucky sod lol as directed by op,duck like shallow areas in ponds and start feeding it if ya get 1-2 starting coming your off, i,d love to do the same my missus got me a book called the roughshooters handbook written by guy n.smith, were he has a chapter about making his own manmade pond and all the trials and tribualtions,of it, very good reading covers most areas of roughshooting

ssl

Seen one which 3 lads dug out by hand in a day. It's impressive to see the area of that material can be dug out with the spade. It was shallow and the sods were used to built hides. It was fresh and unfinished while I was there but the passing flocks were showing interest in it. Must enquire how it turned out.
Best of luck. Take a few pics if ya can

crackcrack30

My big concern is that there is no fresh water running thru??
I seen it done before, on bog, fresh aswell (20yrs ago) in the midlands where a guy clipped the wings of about 20 duck.
I must get back to see how it matured,I remember he had a lot of mink traps set, they must have been taking them?
Does anyone have a proven pond pattern? thinking of 3 longish ponds, would you join them up with drains/ waterways?
Are there any grasses ect that would take off here? will have to get a few buckets of river & pond water to introduce the microbes

I'm on my own so i recon I'll get in a digger for a half day in the summer....

crackcrack30

Might leave a little island, to give them a safe haven from fox ect..

The Big Fella

Well crackcrack I dug this pond out in an hour with a 6 tonne Hitachi back a few months ago. I'm going to plant a screen of trees behind it this week for shelter. I plan to feed the pond to attract the duck into my area. Im also going to set a lot more mink traps around it.

crackcrack30

Wow! its amazing how a pic of swampy hole in the bog to one man is pure porn to another:D

I see you have some reeds appearing already or did you introduce them,
how deep did ya go, I'm thinking of putting in a few deep holes to prevent it eventually growing over,
Will you fence it off for health and safety or just errect some warning signs?
ill post pics as soon as i dig, before and after:P

ethical hunter

Island/s in the middle with some bushes for cover & outside edges sloped in towards the water

The Big Fella

crackcrack30 wrote: »

Wow! its amazing how a pic of swampy hole in the bog to one man is pure porn to another:D

I see you have some reeds appearing already or did you introduce them,
how deep did ya go, I'm thinking of putting in a few deep holes to prevent it eventually growing over,
Will you fence it off for health and safety or just errect some warning signs?
ill post pics as soon as i dig, before and after:P

I dug it about a foot deep overall with a few spots a bit deeper. I was told there's no need to be digging it three foot deep as the ducks like weedy shallow ponds. Im going to fence it with chicken wire with 3 strands of electric wire on the outside to keep mink out from the nesting birds. Id like to plant game crop around it as well. I've to plant a few spruce trees for cover.

crackcrack30

The chicken wire sounds good and cheap. I read on a US forum how duck like a small smooth stoney/sandy (beach) area to dry off prune ect. - a few barrows full should do it.....
I posted on the garden & wildlife sections/threads here for advice on plants ect, see what comes out of it......

cc30

The Big Fella

I must rise a bit of gravel out of the pit.:D The electric wire will be the right job to keep the dirty mink out. What are you going to plant in the pond?

crackcrack30

Dont know? what ever makes it homely/natural for the foul - water lilley, reeds ect.. might put a few different grasses around the edge and a few bushes to draw insects and shelter on the windy/exposed side.
Is there a native water plant that would oxegenate the water? without taking over, lets see if the nature and garden lads come back with something?

The Big Fella

Have a look at this crackcrack plenty of info on plants and trees for the pond. http://www.nargc.ie/habitat-conservation/duck-propagation.aspx

John_Rambo

So cool.. There's a fella on the nature and birdwatching forum that did something similar, he had an eco system of it's own after a couple of years. Moths, frogs, dragonflies, boatmen and other insects that I don't know the name of that attract various other birdlife. Very very very pleasant and nice to have on your land if you have the room, fair play to you, our wetlands are disappearing.

Can I bring my mates, a few cans and my jetski over?

(kidding about the jetski, mates and cans)

crackcrack30

hi guys, I took a treck down to my unused bog today and low and behold the place is more of a swamp than i thought (i know its winter :P). I'D have to go back in in the summer to see if i could get a digger in with out loosing it

There are two large holes dug out already for turf the largest is about 20metres x 10 metres and pretty square i'd say it hasnt been disturbed in 20 years.......

Heres the problem......the holes are full of wet green moss or is it spagnum?? , all i had was a three and half foot stick but i couldnt reach the bottom and this stuff is thick all the way down.

What do ye think would / could it work in this type of ground?
& How much to hire a large track machine for a week??

cheers..........

wildfowler94

as far I as know its not dear too hire a mini digger.
as for the weeds if you want too remove them get a rake head and a length of rope toss it in and pull some out.

crackcrack30

Without the freeflow of water the bog water becomes acidic and acording to some american websites the duck (except black duck) avoid these ponds..? I'll have to visit the ponds i seen in the midlands to see the result or lack of.....

I might borrow a drag to remove the spagnum, feed the pond once a week and see what happens next year.... although i'd probably only last 10 minutes dragging as its heavy stuff........

Bord na mona let an area called 'tuarran' near pollagh naturally return to wetland, anyone know about the population of duck up there?

interesting stuff...........

wildfowler94

The Boora is an example of peat bog going to wetlands in places good wildfowl populations AFAIK

mallards

We had a really boggy area last year that was wet all the time due to a spring bubbling up from the base of hill top. It would grow nothing but scrub and had the odd pheasant in it. So with a kind word with the farmer and a bottle of whiskey, he set about doing this for me.

This is how it looked when the scrub had been cleared. Theres a stream on the left there and you can see the wet ground where the spring comes up.





It took an evenings work by the farmers son and this picture was taken the next morning. The spring was already filling it.



Over the next few days with the help of rain it gradually filled and was full in a week or so.







We haven't had a lot of ducks so far, the odd teal and these feral ducks.



But then again, there have been very few ducks out this way this year. I got it dug with shallow bays and a deep trench in the middle of about four feet. This should help stop it freezing completely in the winter and also stop foxes heading to the island in the middle unless they want to get wet. We also keep the place clear around the pond so the ducks can see danger approach and we will put an electric fence around it in the spring to keep the foxes away if some decide to breed there. The pond water is now clear and trickles out into the stream beside it as an overflow. We also planted about 2 acres of wild bird cover of kale, triticale and quinoa on the other side of the stream for it and its already a wildlife haven.

As a bonus, a second pond has created itself due to the wet weather about half a km from the one we dug and has stayed there since last september.



We have flushed a couple of teal from this one.



We have an auto feeder on the dug pond and if all goes well we will create another similar sized pond this year not too far from the other two.


Mallards