Wildlife and Gardens Thread

[Bellend Sebastian]

8 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

I was in the process of planning one, until I broke my arm

 

Earlier this year I built two mini ponds using large plastic planters.

That sounds enchanting and proportionate. 

 

Mine has naturally gone from being a humble bit of fun to take up maybe an afternoon or two to a gargantuan engineering project requiring hours of research and graft, and a budget that is indirectly supporting the local economy.

 

A water beetle turned up the other day though. It's since moved on but I'd say that's a good return on the investment so far

[Trav Le Bleu]

9 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

That sounds enchanting and proportionate. 

 

Mine has naturally gone from being a humble bit of fun to take up maybe an afternoon or two to a gargantuan engineering project requiring hours of research and graft, and a budget that is indirectly supporting the local economy.

 

A water beetle turned up the other day though. It's since moved on but I'd say that's a good return on the investment so far

Mine supported mosquito larvae

 

I also added some Ramshorn snails, which had lots of baby snails.

[Countryfox]

9 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

I think (in the UK) there's only a couple that will kill you quickly, and several that will make you quite sick and most just taste horrible.

 

A favourite of mine is to slice a puffball like bread and fry it in egg, like French toast.

Never tried that one ..  I usually fry in butter and have on toast for breakfast ..  bloody lovely !  
 

I’ll give it a go .. 

 

[Bellend Sebastian]

On 09/10/2025 at 16:49, Trav Le Bleu said:

Mine supported mosquito larvae

 

I also added some Ramshorn snails, which had lots of baby snails.

You'll get frogs at some point, they'll breed in puddle if it's there long enough.

 

I've been offered some free goldfish today, with a caveat that they are not very gold

[Parafox]

On 09/10/2025 at 19:32, Countryfox said:

Never tried that one ..  I usually fry in butter and have on toast for breakfast ..  bloody lovely !  
 

I’ll give it a go .. 

 

 

2 days later...

 

Hello, @Countryfox... hello... are you there... are you ok... @Countryfox

 

 

Oh dear...

[Parafox]

48 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

You'll get frogs at some point, they'll breed in puddle if it's there long enough.

 

I've been offered some free goldfish today, with a caveat that they are not very gold

 

We put a wildlife pond in a couple of years ago with only pond plants in it hoping to attract insects and such.

 

This year we discovered 2 frogs that seem to have come from nowhere (as the nearest likely place is over 500 metres away), and made it their home.

Edited 10 October 2025 by Parafox

[Trav Le Bleu]

3 hours ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

You'll get frogs at some point, they'll breed in puddle if it's there long enough.

 

I've been offered some free goldfish today, with a caveat that they are not very gold

So they're 'fish then?

[Bellend Sebastian]

8 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

So they're 'fish then?

Probably turn up with a bucket of angry pike, half arsedly spray painted gold 

[Bellend Sebastian]

11 hours ago, Parafox said:

 

We put a wildlife pond in a couple of years ago with only pond plants in it hoping to attract insects and such.

 

This year we discovered 2 frogs that seem to have come from nowhere (as the nearest likely place is over 500 metres away), and made it their home.

We get frogs in our garden anyway and I don't know that anyone's got a pond near us so that's always been a bit of a mystery where they came from so probably similar, unless someone had some frogspawn in a bucket or something. 

 

After all the effort I've gone to they'll probably ignore it just to spite me

[FoyleFox]

We've had a pond for 4 years now, never seen a frog. We do have goldfish which are gold, though. 

[Free Falling Foxes]

58 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

We get frogs in our garden anyway and I don't know that anyone's got a pond near us so that's always been a bit of a mystery where they came from so probably similar, unless someone had some frogspawn in a bucket or something. 

 

After all the effort I've gone to they'll probably ignore it just to spite me

We have a small 2' dia pond that that has had frogspawn deposited therein* most years. Often however, it can all disappear overnight.

I wondered if some animal laps it up during a midnight feast, especially as a neighbour reported frogspawn (vomited?) all over their patio one morning.

 

* One year, I was passing our pond and it looked like it was coming to the boil as there were loads of bubbles appearing. Closer inspection revealed 6 or more pairs having a proper frog orgy.

Edited 11 October 2025 by Free Falling Foxes

[Foxdiamond]

2 hours ago, FoyleFox said:

We've had a pond for 4 years now, never seen a frog. We do have goldfish which are gold, though. 

We don't have a pond but see the odd frog or two in the back of the borders. Good as they eat the slugs and snails. Don't think neighbours have a pond though there is a brook not far away.

[Bellend Sebastian]

23 hours ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

We have a small 2' dia pond that that has had frogspawn deposited therein* most years. Often however, it can all disappear overnight.

I wondered if some animal laps it up during a midnight feast, especially as a neighbour reported frogspawn (vomited?) all over their patio one morning.

 

* One year, I was passing our pond and it looked like it was coming to the boil as there were loads of bubbles appearing. Closer inspection revealed 6 or more pairs having a proper frog orgy.

Those dirty buggers go all in, don't they? Proper mass pile-ons. I'll not stand for that filth in MY garden, I can tell you.

 

Spent a more chaste afternoon messing about with electrics and pipework so now have filtration and a (rather more spectacular than intended) waterfall working

[Sol thewall Bamba]

Got a mole absolutely terrorising my lawn at the minute. Any tips?

[Bellend Sebastian]

5 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Got a mole absolutely terrorising my lawn at the minute. Any tips?

Solar powered mole f**ker-uppers are a thing, it would seem

[Sol thewall Bamba]

13 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

Solar powered mole f**ker-uppers are a thing, it would seem

Got three of them in at the moment, yesterday it put a hole up right on one and knocked it over

 

Have also tried coffee grounds, pellets etc. The thing that seemed to put it off the most was some liquid fertilizer on the lawn but I can't keep putting that down

[Bellend Sebastian]

12 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Got three of them in at the moment, yesterday it put a hole up right on one and knocked it over

 

Have also tried coffee grounds, pellets etc. The thing that seemed to put it off the most was some liquid fertilizer on the lawn but I can't keep putting that down

Amazing scenes, you seem to have gotten into conflict with the William Wallace of the mole world. 

 

Negotiate?

[Trav Le Bleu]

2 hours ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

 

Have also tried coffee grounds, pellets etc. The thing that seemed to put it off the most was some liquid fertilizer on the lawn but I can't keep putting that down

You can if you eat enough curries.

[Free Falling Foxes]

3 hours ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Got a mole absolutely terrorising my lawn at the minute. Any tips?

 

[Countryfox]

On 10/10/2025 at 20:52, Parafox said:

 

2 days later...

 

Hello, @Countryfox... hello... are you there... are you ok... @Countryfox

 

 

Oh dear...

Yep all fine here ta ..  just got back from a cruise ..  spent the morning hoovering up hundreds of flies and wasps .. downside to living in the sticks !   

[Bellend Sebastian]

On 10/10/2025 at 20:06, Bellend Sebastian said:

 

I've been offered some free goldfish today, with a caveat that they are not very gold

Do you know that feeling sometimes when you wish people were a bit less generous? The six 2" fish I agreed to take on arrived today having miraculously increased in both size and quantity by 100%

 

Thanks, I think

[Trav Le Bleu]

1 hour ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

Do you know that feeling sometimes when you wish people were a bit less generous? The six 2" fish I agreed to take on arrived today having miraculously increased in both size and quantity by 100%

 

Thanks, I think

These fish... Do they have long ears, fluffy tails, back legs twice the size of their front, eat carrots and, most importantly, wear snorkels?

[Bellend Sebastian]

47 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

These fish... Do they have long ears, fluffy tails, back legs twice the size of their front, eat carrots and, most importantly, wear snorkels?

Yes what of it 

[Trav Le Bleu]

1 hour ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

Yes what of it 

They breed quickly those fish.

[Bellend Sebastian]

ID'd my first False Widow spider properly.

 

Even if it were actually dangerous, it's not very intimidating and I say that as someone that normally HATES spiders. 

 

It was also outside, which helped