Essays

Wild On The Prairie: Habitats

Water features in landscapes are shrines to the wonder of water
February 20, 2000

The Gone Native Arboretum has birdbaths,pools, and ponds, and each attracts different populations of wildlife. The use of water features in home landscapes of the Llano Estacado may seem wasteful to the poor soul whose well is going dry. A small water feature is a shrine, however. Water brings varied life, and its attendant joyous activity. Water birds and bactrians (toads and frogs) sing, turtles grin as they wade in, and skunks, foxes and raccoons dance away after drinking their fill.

Ideally, birdbaths should be set directly into the ground. They should be constructed to have a shallow end, and a constantly dripping source of water to attract wildlife with its tinkling, aquatic murmur that attracts wildlife. Run-off should flow in one single direction, so a Cardinal Flower or a Monkey Flower can be planted in the moist soil to attract hummingbirds. Pretty rocks can be placed just under the surface of the water – partly to satisfy the aesthetic sense, but also to provide varying depths of water for different sizes of birds. Garden-dwelling box turtles will use the birdbath as well, coming in for a long soak. A birdbath with a constant trickle of water uses about 500 gallons a week.

Pools provide habitat for frogs, water-snails, ornamental water plants, and tiny mosquitofish (Gambusia). The easiest pool to construct is a sheeptank sunk into the ground, camouflaged by rocks placed around the edge. A 90 gallon tank will need to be filled every ten to fifteen days.

Why should a garden have frogs? Oh, come on now, don’t you think frogs croaking are funny-sounding? Frogs are a lot healthier for the garden than chemical insecticides, anyhow.

Water snails will magically appear in the pool -- no one needs to introduce them on purpose. A person can understand the almost immediate appearance of dragonflies, damselflies, water beetles, and water bugs at a garden pool, but snails do not have wings. Snails in a garden pool are fine, unless you are high-tech and have a circulating pump that will become clogged by them.

Many plants can turn a garden pool into a “bog garden.” Water pickerel, no more than one water hyacinth, Louisiana Iris, Spiderlily, and small cattail or bulrush plants are all acceptable choices. Fish are added later, to swim among the plants.

Gambusia are needed to prevent mosquitos. Female mosquitofish give birth to 200 babies a month, so catching four or five for your garden pool out of the Sibley Nature Center’s Pond is perfectly acceptable to the staff at Sibley. Feeder Goldfish from pet stores can be added for fun and interest but do not put goldfish in bigger ponds: they will get eaten, unless you are a professional at providing cover in which they can hide.

Ponds are an excellent project for folks who live in the country, or who have an over-size city lot. A pond is not a pond until it is bigger than an average backyard – say 40 feet by 40 feet. To build a pond, a backhoe is required to move the dirt. The hole should be double-lined with oilfield waste-pit liners. The sides of the hole should slope gradually, unless the homeowner is set on having a deep end visible from the shore. If so, that end is very carefully riprapped with dirt and rock for an almost sheer drop. If plastic is left exposed the first dog that wades in will shred it. To avoid this problem, the bottom of the pond should be lined with ground caliche. According to the law, a pond owner has the right to kill any dog that causes damage.

Ground caliche is quite alkaline, and prevents the immediate growth of cattails and other aquatic plants. If the bottom of the pond is lined with soil rather than caliche, cattails will begin to grow the first year. Each cattail produces a million seeds that float for miles in the ever-moving west Texas winds. In five years, a pond can be completely choked with cattails. Only a birdwatcher who specializes in attracting marsh birds such as Virginia and King Rails, would want a pond of cattails.

Almost every country pond will eventually have a Salt Cedar growing on its shores, as well. The tiny seeds arrive in sandstorms, or on the muddy feet of water loving birds that will soon visit a new pond. One Salt Cedar can be pretty, but once it starts producing seeds the edge of the pond can become lined with the deciduous evergreens – Salt Cedar leaves look like those of Cedar or Juniper, but they fall off every winter!

Great Blue Herons, Green-backed Herons, two species of Night Herons, Cattle Egrets, Killdeer and other sandpipers, and even Ducks can be expected to visit at a country pond. Many such birds go unnoticed as they may only appear during the quiet of the workday week, but an observant eye will notice the big white splotches of the herons’ droppings, or see foot prints in the soft soil at the edge of the pond.

It is essential that Gambusia be placed into the pond immediately for effective mosquito control. Other fish can be added as hiding places are created or developed. A soil holding plant such as moneywort should be planted along the edge, so the plastic liner will never be visible when the shoreline erodes. These plants will run out into the pond, to protect any new fish added later.

Several clumps of rocks that form mini-caves are important for fish. Bluegill and other sunfish will live for years in a pond; and if a person is so inclined, the little sweeties can be caught and fried. Waterlilies grown in pots at the proper depth also provide hiding places for fish. When herons arrive, many pond owners suffer in anquish as fish so carefully fed nightly, disappear in a toss of the bird’s head.

If the pond owner has provided hiding places for the fish, however, it becomes a grand competition. “Ah-ha, ol’ buddy, you missed six goldfish out of twenty! And don’t you know, their younguns are gonna be smarter! Heh-heh.”

Until a homeowner has a pond, he or she probably has not noticed how many birds drink on the wing. Barn Swallows will come by for a drink, and if mud is supplied, even gather some for their nests. Purple Martins will come get a drink, too. But other birds love to drink as they fly. Scissortails are incredibly graceful as they swoop low, and Western Kingbirds will actually shut up for a few seconds when it is their turn. In the evening, the Common Nighthawks line up like airliners at an airport for their evening sip.

And, of course, every bird in the neighborhood will come for a drink, as well. One side of the pond should be planted with plenty of cover so that birds will feel safe as they drop ever lower, watching carefully for predators. Evergreen trees or bushes interspersed with blooming or berry-producing plants or shrubs are perfect.

To keep a 40-foot by 40-foot by 3-foot deep pond at reasonably full, a windmill needs to run about 24 hours a week. Whether having a pond is wasteful of our fossil water is a decision each homeowner has to make individually.