Marsh 2

Marsh 2 was always planned to be shallow and full of dense marsh vegetation. With similar dimensions to Marsh 1, this hole would add little in terms of water volume, but produce 6m² of good marsh habitat.

Long term, our plan is to entice Black Crake and perhaps even a young Red-chested Flufftail to take up residence. They both require similar habitats, patches of dense cover, water edge and foraging areas of mud or short vegetation. Whilst only a small patch to start with, this again would be the testing ground for the much larger ‘Marsh 3’ to come.

Digging commenced on a Sunday, removing the grass layer to expose a small volume of topsoil over the much deeper clay. With a target depth of only 20cm, digging didn’t take long – indeed, only a few hours of labour were required late on Monday afternoon to finish the job. Grass trimmings added, the plastic sheeting was laid a few minutes later. Some helpful evening rain even filled the marsh ahead of marsh plant collection.

Despite its small size, filling the pond with the requisite marsh plants, mud and other aquatic wildlife took 6 trips to various locations. To keep my impact down to a minimum, I collected material from degraded or heavily disturbed seeps and drainage ditches within the area during the late Autumn, before the growing season had started.

Post Ed – a few months after planting and the increased rainfall, light hours and temperatures have spurred on growth. The marsh is now exactly as intended with plentiful cover and an ever-increasing density of frogs, insects and other invertebrates.

Initial grass clearance - not much topsoil here!

Plastic lining went on quickly with a few logs to hold things in place

Even drizzle flowing from roof to marsh.

A day after lining and the mrsh was already full of water

First marsh plants added.

Multiple trips later, still not fully vegetated.

Two months later - the marsh was growing fast.

A heavy downpour showing the growth of Marsh 2 and the beginnings of pond 1 in the background.

Manufacturing a wetland

When I was about 14, I convinced my parents to let me run riot in their garden. I chopped out all the exotic rubbish, replanted with indigenous and even put in a small pond (made with a piece of orange roofing plastic that my old man found for me somewhere…). Since then, I’ve always wanted a grander dam or lake in my backyard, but never lived anywhere long enough to make it happen.

Fast forward around 25 years and I found myself buying a property with Meg. I looked at the backyard and saw my chance. Fairly flat ground with only a vegetable garden and a lot of lawn to conquer. In the days before COVID, I imagined hiring a backhoe and digging one ginormous pond to house Large-mouthed Bass in order that I could go fishing in my own backyard… So, we moved the veg patch and enclosed it, got rid of a rudimentary rockery and built a fine BBQ area in its place. All I had to do was get working on the lake.

By the time I finished sorting our all the other upgrades and renovations around the house, COVID had arrived and lockdown was in full swing. Not only was the backhoe idea out, so was the ginormous pond for fishing - an alternate outcome was required, one that was going to cost very little and surely involve a rather large amount of personal labour… Back to the old days it was then, self-dug holes and plastic liners would be the order of the day. Since long and wide liners cost a small fortune, I planned to use smaller sheets of plastic that are more routinely used in roofing to provide under tile waterproofing. At 250um thick, they should do the trick. My intentions had changed somewhat too, out with the big fishing pond and in with a number of shallower marshes for amphibians, crakes and flufftails.

One afternoon with 'lockdown beverages' in hand, Meg and I arranged a pile of soda bottles, plant pots and hockey sticks around the backyard to form a basis for the grand scheme. A few days later, we started laying the main water feeder pipe – a 50mm ldpe pipe connected to our JoJo overflow. Trenching and pipe laying done, a multitude of connections were fixed and laid, ready to fill all the ponds and marshes.

Phase one would be a small pond – something that would allow us to test form and function. Early on a Saturday morning, Kaily and I headed outside with spades, shovels and wheelbarrows. The first hole was scheduled to be 3 metres long, 1.7metres wide and around 40 centimetres deep. 5 hours and 36 wheelbarrow loads of dirt later, we had our first hole. To provide some protection, we tipped in a few piles of old cut grass and laid the plastic. In went some water from the JoJo to get things going, before the evenings predicted rain arrived and proved that our piping worked too. Now we needed some life, so we hit a nearby marsh for some reeds, before another downpour the following day filled the pond. In the space of a week, we had increased our water capacity by 2000 litres and breathed some new life into what was the sterile lawn. 

*Postscript. Marsh 1 would indeed be the practice run, for we could not keep the water oxygenated enough. We ended up filling the pond in with soil from Pond 1 to create a contiguous marsh. Successfully punctured the lining and had to re-dig it and re-line it…

Planning - with soda bottles and hockey sticks

Feeder pipe form the JoJo overflow 

Breaking ground

Almost done

Black liner with first water going in

Almost complete

There was a leak somewhere, but it was a case of digging it out again

Re-lined and filled

Battle of the invasive aliens.

As I have written about before, I’ve despised invasive aliens since I was old enough to know about them. Be it plants, trees, birds or mammals - I have at various stages of my life been on a mission to cut, chop, shoot or poison as much of it as I can. My last venture in the Town Bush Stream, Pietermaritzburg ultimately ended in failure. One person cannot manage the volume of foliage and regrowth with machete and brush cutter alone. Given I was down stream of the horrid Ferncliffe plantation and invasive choked hillside, I knew I wasn't going to accomplish much in the long term.

Hilton may be on the top of the hill, but it is equally chocked with invasives and plantations of Eucalyptus and Pine. The primary invasive in this area is the Bugweed (Solanum mauritianum) of South America. Few properties are free of this noxious weed, even our property has small seedlings pop up on occasion. The weed creates so many tasty berries, that many birds find them absolutely irresistible - resulting in rapid spread. Whilst I keep on top of our garden easily enough, having to look at the infested vacant plot across the road from us has bugged me for quite some time. Meg helpfully suggested I do something about it, so even before lockdown was officially over, Kai and I headed over the road to start chopping and poisoning. It took a few afternoons to wade through the tall grass and a patch of American Bramble (another invasive alien), but eventually we had chopped and poisoned the entire lot. A little maintenance is all that is required to keep one more property under control.

Vacant lot - 18 May 2020

Vacant lot - 11 June 2020

Yawn, just another version of the same Lockdown... Part 12 - Ecuador

The 'relaxing' of lockdown really just meant that the mice were allowed to get off their wheels and walk around the neighbourhood for a 3 hour period. If you haven't read Nineteen Eighty Four, then you have no concept of the inference - if you have, then I think you are well to be concerned. Musings aside, the garden list has grown with some unusual sightings recently including a Bokmakierie and even a young Martial Eagle this afternoon.

To keep sane, one's mind needs to dream a little - and there are few places on the globe where dreaming about seeing a lot of birds can be satisfied quite like Ecuador. It can be an overwhelming destination, with hundreds of new species to see in just a matter of days - so take your time! With a number of feeders and photo blinds, their is plenty of scope to take your time and enjoy the varied species and their behaviour. Toucans and their smaller cousins, the Aracaris never fail to make an entrance at a fruit feeder - often bossing proceedings with a simple swoosh of their bill.

Pale-mandibled Aracari. Milpe, Ecuador

A high resolution version of this image is available on my Shutterstock page.