ponds and birds

[Barbara]

Hello all! I have been enjoying my new pond until I saw a drowned sparrow
in it. I think he tried to land on my water lettuce. How do you deal with
this? I was thinking of placing chicken wire under the plants

[kathy]

Birds will drown from time to time.
They do in Mother Nature's ponds also.

One thing I did was take a nicely shaped
tree branch and lay it across the pond to
the island I have in the middle. A lot of the
birds chose that as their first choice for
drinking.

Another option is to provide a bird bath
right next to the pond and see if they
like that better than the pond for drinking.

kathy :-) www.blogfromthebog.com
Pond 101 page for new pond keepers ~
http://hometown.aol.com/ka30p/myhomepage/garden.html

[Bill Stock]

"Barbara" > wrote in message
...
> Hello all! I have been enjoying my new pond until I saw a drowned sparrow
> in it. I think he tried to land on my water lettuce. How do you deal
> with this? I was thinking of placing chicken wire under the plants

This is a pretty rare occurrence for us, maybe two a year. We have a
waterfall that the birds prefer.

[Reel Mckoi]

"Barbara" > wrote in message
...
> Hello all! I have been enjoying my new pond until I saw a drowned sparrow
> in it. I think he tried to land on my water lettuce. How do you deal
> with this? I was thinking of placing chicken wire under the plants
=========================
Or place something flat with a rough surface that floats so the birds can
hop up on it to escape.
--
McKoi.... the frugal ponder...
My Pond Page http://tinyurl.com/cuq5b
~~~ }<((((o> ~~~ }<{{{{o> ~~~ }<(((((o>
http://www.hyphenologist.co.uk/killfile/anti_troll_faq.htm

[Will James]

"Barbara" > wrote in message
...
> Hello all! I have been enjoying my new pond until I saw a drowned sparrow
> in it. I think he tried to land on my water lettuce. How do you deal
with
> this? I was thinking of placing chicken wire under the plants
>
I suppose sloping sides and shelves might help an animal to get out of a
pond but not much use if a big pond, then you could use a few solid things
spread around the pond sticking out that birds can jump onto like fountains
or sculpture maybe dead wood??

Will

[Hal]

On Mon, 1 Aug 2005 09:40:22 -0400, "Barbara" >
wrote:

>Hello all! I have been enjoying my new pond until I saw a drowned sparrow
>in it. I think he tried to land on my water lettuce. How do you deal with
>this? I was thinking of placing chicken wire under the plants
>
Bird droppings are not a good thing in ponds so I try to discourage
their use of the fish pond by keeping a yard fountain filled for them.

I wouldn't build something to make using my fish pond more convenient
for birds and I doubt a healthy bird accidentally drowned because it
had nothing to support it's body above the water. My first thought is
a mosquito born virus or something similar and a weak bird. It may
be unusual to find a dead bird in a pond, but I find them other
places, so why not in a pond?

Regards,

Hal

[Barbara]

I would like to thank all of you who took the time to answer.

Barbara


"Hal" > wrote in message
...
> On Mon, 1 Aug 2005 09:40:22 -0400, "Barbara" >
> wrote:
>
>>Hello all! I have been enjoying my new pond until I saw a drowned sparrow
>>in it. I think he tried to land on my water lettuce. How do you deal
>>with
>>this? I was thinking of placing chicken wire under the plants
>>
> Bird droppings are not a good thing in ponds so I try to discourage
> their use of the fish pond by keeping a yard fountain filled for them.
>
> I wouldn't build something to make using my fish pond more convenient
> for birds and I doubt a healthy bird accidentally drowned because it
> had nothing to support it's body above the water. My first thought is
> a mosquito born virus or something similar and a weak bird. It may
> be unusual to find a dead bird in a pond, but I find them other
> places, so why not in a pond?
>
> Regards,
>
> Hal

[sean mckinney]

Re birds landing in mid pond and drowning.
I have watched young sparrows land on vegitation out from the shore of
my pond, they keep 'flying' until the footing underneath them feels
solid. Only one of those I watched found firm footing and stopped
flying, the other just took off again.
I think it more likely that yours suddenly slipped in off something and
was unable to take off again. If the pond has steep sides with a couple
of inches of freeboard drowned birds are quite common here. That is why
my pond has a semi submerged shoaling shoreline, the following is a
"during construction" photo
http://tinyurl.com/a7gyx
to date, 3 and a bit years, I have not had a bird or animal drown in
this pond and it is heavily used by birds.


--
sean mckinney

[~ jan JJsPond.us]

On Fri, 5 Aug 2005 09:22:47 +0000, sean mckinney
> wrote:

>my pond has a semi submerged shoaling shoreline, the following is a
>"during construction" photo
>http://tinyurl.com/a7gyx

Way cool, any more photos? ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

[sean mckinney]

Re "Way cool, any more photos? ~ jan"
Try
http://tinyurl.com/8d24n
and also add 2, 3 ,4 or 5 immediately after the "e" of webpage, ignore
any text in the column to the right of the photos. I think the
caoptions are up to date though.


--
sean mckinney

[~ jan JJsPond.us]

>Try
>http://tinyurl.com/8d24n
>and also add 2, 3 ,4 or 5 immediately after the "e" of webpage, ignore
>any text in the column to the right of the photos. I think the
>caoptions are up to date though.

Not sure of your directions, I just clicked on the page #s to the right.
Some very interesting shots, wished I could have made them bigger.
~ jan


~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

[sean mckinney]

try
http://tinyurl.com/e4auo
http://tinyurl.com/739xv
http://tinyurl.com/akwz2
http://tinyurl.com/8skqx

I just went through
http://tinyurl.com/8d24n
as the public sees it, some of the pictures look to have been
'stretched', peculiar.


--
sean mckinney

[~ jan JJsPond.us]

>try
>http://tinyurl.com/e4auo
>http://tinyurl.com/739xv
>http://tinyurl.com/akwz2
>http://tinyurl.com/8skqx

Only one that worked above was the last, and still a small photo.

>I just went through
>http://tinyurl.com/8d24n
>as the public sees it, some of the pictures look to have been
>'stretched', peculiar.

Noted that too. ;o) ~ jan


~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~