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This Is What Happens When You Build A Wildlife Pond (Original Post) catbyte 11 hrs ago OP
Love this, thanks. a kennedy 10 hrs ago #1
That's beautiful 💙 I just love nature TommieMommy 9 hrs ago #2
Ok. I'm getting out my shovel... Great video. erronis 9 hrs ago #3
Nice ... but it doesn't work that way in the suburbs FakeNoose 9 hrs ago #4
One of my sisters (both live in the 'burbs) had a neighbor who built a beautiful pond in their yard BumRushDaShow 8 hrs ago #8
If I built one of those lovely ponds in my yard FakeNoose 8 hrs ago #10
Oh there is literally a "deer run" right along the side of her house BumRushDaShow 7 hrs ago #11
I hear ya! My daylilies haven't actually bloomed for the last 5 years FakeNoose 5 hrs ago #12
That is wonderful. 1WorldHope 9 hrs ago #5
A great effort, and a wonderful result! Ty electric_blue68 9 hrs ago #6
I love that! StarryNite 9 hrs ago #7
I find all kinds of paw prints in the sand around my pond. Emile 8 hrs ago #9

BumRushDaShow

(151,385 posts)
8. One of my sisters (both live in the 'burbs) had a neighbor who built a beautiful pond in their yard
Mon Apr 28, 2025, 01:51 PM
8 hrs ago

All kinds of things came to it - except that he had koi in it and eventually had to net it because herons were swooping in to "dine"!

I guess if you keep the prize fish out of it (maybe leave minnows and tadpoles/frogs), and make it shallow enough like the OP video, the birds will definitely come! I suppose the foxes can also be an issue although they are crepuscular (like the skunks).

FakeNoose

(37,235 posts)
10. If I built one of those lovely ponds in my yard
Mon Apr 28, 2025, 02:23 PM
8 hrs ago

... I'd have a herd of deer coming in every night.

The deer are already bad enough in my neighborhood without giving them another attraction. They treat my daylilies and other flowers like it's their free salad bar every night. My dog goes nuts every time he sees a deer.

BumRushDaShow

(151,385 posts)
11. Oh there is literally a "deer run" right along the side of her house
Mon Apr 28, 2025, 03:33 PM
7 hrs ago

so she would NEVER put one out there!

They have eaten every one of her daylillies as soon as they bud up (some do bloom before they discover them and away they go), have eaten her roses, her hosta becomes "salad" for all of the creatures, and she has a fenced-in veggie garden to keep the groundhogs out (the previous owner literally had a chain link "pen" with a gate for vegetable gardening that my sis removed - wish she hadn't).

I have gone over there and have seen a herd of 6 - 7, including the babies, crossing the street headed for her yard, There have been discarded antlers in her yard that my nephew would find and save.

I remember the day she moved there and i was at the house waiting for a delivery truck bringing her new patio furniture while she was with the moving truck with her hubby, and the first thing that walked through her yard was a deer. And then someone's long-hair tortie cat (my sister ended up getting one of those several years later) showed up and started "having a conversation" with the deer.

There is a little creek at the bottom of the back yard that is on a down slope and they hang out there. I always called her yard "the zoo" (deer, ground hogs, rabbits, skunks, foxes, red-tailed and Cooper's hawks, vultures, 2 different types of woodpeckers, possums, voles, moles, squirrels, chipmunks, and a whole variety of birds).

Her next door neighbor eventually started raising backyard chickens AND turkeys so I got to learn about that and my niece would go over there and collect the eggs. Sometimes the hens would get out and I would pull up to the house to visit and see a bunch pecking around the front yard but knew how to get their "food can" to herd them back to their coop. The turkeys would occasionally jump up on the fence between the properties. Her neighbor eventually had to really fence them in when the foxes and hawks discovered them.

ZOO!!!!

FakeNoose

(37,235 posts)
12. I hear ya! My daylilies haven't actually bloomed for the last 5 years
Mon Apr 28, 2025, 04:53 PM
5 hrs ago

The deer just chomp down before the buds can ever open up full-size. I can spray the plants with a solution of Irish Spring soap, but the deer catch on after about 2 days.

1WorldHope

(1,152 posts)
5. That is wonderful.
Mon Apr 28, 2025, 01:15 PM
9 hrs ago

We built a pond in our back yard maybe 15 yrs ago, but, we live in the city and we have dogs. So we don't see deer or badgers. But the birds and squirrels just flock to our back yard. It's the best thing we ever did. But it is work and I don't know how many years I have left in me. I need a young person to teach how to care for it, then I can pay them.

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