14 Comments
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Madeleine's avatar

Amazing photos as always, and aslo some good for thought in your text. A few years ago we dug a big pond at the end of our land, I wanted it so that wildlife would always have water to drink even during the dry summer. The ammount of tracks from moose and roe deer tells me it was a success 😍

Rania Rönntoft's avatar

Thank you! And oooh that makes me so excited, I can't wait to make a pond! How did you line yours? I'm still researching How to best go about it so any tips are welcome!

Madeleine's avatar

To be honest we just had a friend with an excavator dig a big hole and there was a ditch rearby that made the flow in and out of the pond natural. The ammount of small creatures that has moved in proved to us that it was a good way and since the groundwater is wery near the ground level here it keeps the pond filled with water all year even when the inlet and outlet dried out during summer. The ammount of frogs eggs this year is absolutely insane! 😍

Rania Rönntoft's avatar

Oh wow that's awesome! So you did not do any pond fabric? Did you plant any water plants? I wish we had a way to keep it naturally fed with water, but alas we don't 😔

Yeah it's a good frog year it seems!

Tim's avatar

Great post and pics. I'll be going out with the app tomorrow to see what I can pick up in my local park, what a great initiative.

Also... that comment re Pokémon is so accurate, who knew my childhood card collection was priming me for birding at 40.

Rania Rönntoft's avatar

Thanks Tim! And yeah it's such a great initiative, isn't it? 🥰 Parks usually have a lot of birds, and it's also easier to get close as they're more used to humans!

Haha yeaaah that's definitely what Pokémon primed us for. I did always enjoy the flying ones a lot!

Gosia's avatar

Ahh welcome to the world of bird lovers! It usually happens between the age of 30 and 40, one day you wake up and find out, that you want to watch some birds, listen to them, maybe take a picture and install a birding app (I use the Merlin too!) :D

Your pictures are excellent (as always) and I hope to see much more! Building a pond for wildlife on your property is a great idea! There's lots of tutorials on youtube (don't ask how I know ;)

Rania Rönntoft's avatar

Thank you! I'm getting closer to 40 and I guess this is my "midlife crisis" 😅

Hah I promise I won't ask how you know 😉 but yes it's a very exciting project and I am researching it a lot now ✨️

Gosia's avatar

If only we had crisises like that!

Rania Rönntoft's avatar

As far as crisises go it's a pretty good one

Jessica Folgmann's avatar

Ah cool I did not know this one. I use BirdNet.

Rania Rönntoft's avatar

Ooh and I did not know about BirdNet! But yeah I've had Merlin for years and I love it 🎶 🐦

Jessica Folgmann's avatar

They also partner with the Cornell lab for example. It was designed at the Technical University in Chemnitz/Germany.

Rania Rönntoft's avatar

Oh that's so cool!!