Tadpoles and Streams
I've switched to volunteering on a Thursday this week (it's only a few days since I was last here and you can have too much of a good thing!)
It rained last night and I'm concerned that the new upper pond might have burst through its holding embankment. Fortunately only a small trickle of water is escaping – a similar amount to that noticed on Saturday. I decide to leave it be and hope it does not become an issue. In a couple months time the water level will drop, once stream dries up. Then we can fix any leaks by adding a big blob of subsoil over the leak to seal it. Potentially all the ponds are likely to dry up over summer months, but even if this does happen, we are hopeful that enough water-side vegetation will spring up to benefit a more biodiverse range of species than was previously the case.
The ponds are already attracting Water Starwort and I'm hopeful that the recent laying of frog spawn will see the froglets through to adulthood. Checking the frog spawn reveals masses of small black tadpoles jammed together in a writhing mass, frienziedly feeding on the remains of their egg cases. A pond skater is already lurking at the surface, keen on adding a fly trapped in the sticky surface layer of the pond to its menu. It is even quite possible that a small tadpole could move too close and fall within his reach.
The tadpoles in the bottom-most of the two lowest ponds are more advanced and have consumed their eggs and are busy foraging for anything else to add to the dinner table. A few days ago I read an advert for tadpole food, which advised that “Tadpoles will eat greens including lettuce (not cos or iceberg), broccoli, or baby spinach.” These must evidently be well- heeled tadpoles, since mother nature provides for all their needs, in the form of algae in our ponds. To prove that the ponds are genuinely doing their bit for wildlife (without the addition of broccoli), I catch sight of a small black diving beetle in the pond.
The spreading waters of the stream appear to be making the forest soil good and soggy, since wet-loving Cuckoo Flower, along with Wood Anemone and Bluebell, are about to come into flower. In the woodland I discover a drainage ditch leading from our neighbour's field is directing some of his water into the woods. This is a bonus and I take the chance to redirected it into an empty stream channel leading down to Streamside. I just love redirecting stream water. Takes me back to the seaside of my youth!