It warmed up here a little the end of last week and we had a good rain. The water ran off the frozen ground and filled the ponds right up!
They are all the way full now so you can get an idea of how they are supposed to look.
From the spoil pile shows the shape of front pond;
Back pond;
In the spring we will be planting some native shrubs and grasses around them.
We were planning on going bunny hunting this weekend and as we pulled up a flock of twelve turkeys was feeding in the pasture along with a nice basket buck....so we just let them enjoy their Saturday and hunted the other farm!
We had a good snow Wednesday night, Actually best snow of the year so far with falling temps into the teens. So my youngest son and I went out for an early morning bunny hunt before he had to head back to college.
As we came up to the farm we noticed there was a flock of at least thirty geese tucked in at one corner of the front pond, this is the first year Ohio has had the extended goose season until Feb 11th. We quickly came up with a plan to cut through the orchard and come up over the spoil pile, it worked perfectly. The geese were around twenty five yards when we came over the top, they immediately jumped into the wind and we each took opposites sides of the flock, we made it rain! Limited out just like that on our own pond.
Thankfully we had the dog with us and she made retrieving in the ice a breeze.
Didn't end up getting any bunnies they were holed up with the weather...but it was a great morning!
We put in two wood duck nest boxes in February and both boxes have/had hens nested in them, one has already hatched out so I cleaned it out to see if another hen will move in. Going to add two more nest boxes next winter.
We also added some channel cats a few crappie and a bunch of minnows to the ponds, lots of frogs and a few turtles have moved in this spring too. It was unbelievable the amount of waterfowl that used the ponds this spring at times hundreds of ducks&geese were on them earlier during migration, the last couple months there has been non stop waterfowl traffic on them. Have also seen a variety of shore birds cruising the shorelines.
Thanks for the pictures and the steps you took on improving the land! It is cool to follow along and see what it takes to have a nice hunting spot. It is amazing how fast the waterfowl took to the ponds.
We have THOUSANDS of tadpoles right now, from little tree frog ones to big bullfrog ones I think I've seen every type of frog and toad Ohio has at the ponds.
Looks great,do you have any fish stocked yet.That first pic of the leopard frog or what we call a striped frog is probably one of the best channel cat and bass bait there is
Looks great,do you have any fish stocked yet.That first pic of the leopard frog or what we call a striped frog is probably one of the best channel cat and bass bait there is