Yesterday I posted about installing the new floating duck island. Today, some additional pictures of that process, as captured by the two cameras that watch the pond.

To start, here’s me easing the cart and island down the bank into the pond, as seen by the cam near the duck house:

Another angle, from the pond deck cam:

Island off the cart:

Adding the two extra buoyancy buckets:

Moving it to by the duck house:

Removing the upturned boat:

A wheelbarrow of dirt (look next to the datestamp):

Adding dirt:

Adding grasses:

Digging up grasses next to the duck house (it was encroaching a bit too close, so I wanted to remove some anyway):

Wading in the pond again to plant the grasses in the dirt:

Anchoring the island:

Ducks investigating the island from a safe distance, an hour after I was done:

Ducks near the island this morning; I haven’t seen any go onto it yet, but at least they aren’t totally avoiding it:

While on morning rounds, I propped up the old boat with a couple of logs:

The thought is that they could use it as an additional shelter, e.g. for laying eggs:

Here it is from across the pond. It isn’t super attractive, though has a certain aged rustic charm. I might move it elsewhere, but that’ll do for now:

Some more pictures of the island:

A glimpse of ducks on the bank at the back of the pond:

Having completed construction on my duck island project last weekend, today I installed it in the pond.

I started by gathering up some tools, the two extra buoyancy buckets, and an empty bucket, and pulled it out of the workshop (remember, it was already sitting on my cart):

I also attached a couple of bungee cords to the cart, to make sure it wouldn’t slide around too much:

I added a couple of eye rings to attach the anchor cord:

Then I dragged it all to the pond, the long way around the veggie garden (as it was too wide to fit down the most direct path). I took a breather halfway there:

Near the edge of the pond:

I then put on my waders, and lowered it — cart and all — down the bank and into the water:

You can also see the anchor cord in that picture, a plastic-wrapped wire with spring clips on the ends (actually a dog tie-out cord, that I bought for this purpose). I also added a short piece of pool noodle to the cord, so it’d float if unhooked, though I later decided it was ugly and removed it; I can re-add it if and when I need to unhook it.

As I got deeper, it floated off the cart:

Floating high out of the water, just as expected:

I then inserted those two extra buoyancy buckets under the island, and used the empty bucket to add some water to the island to test weighing it down a bit.

I moved it over to near the duck house, and hitched the anchor cord to it temporarily:

Then I got out of the waders, and went and got a small wheelbarrow load of dirt:

Then a second larger load of dirt:

It was then floating lower with the weight of the dirt; just about the desired level:

Next, I dug up some of the grasses that grow like weeds next to the pond, and tossed them onto the island, with a larger one in the center:

The island could be a little lower, but I wanted to err on the side of a bit higher, to allow for the dirt to get saturated. I might add more later, once I see how it stabilizes.

Then back into the waders and into the pond, where I poked the grasses into the dirt:

The grasses are pretty dormant at present, and some may not survive the transplant, but hopefully some will. They’re pretty hardy. I can always add more later.

That done, I moved the island to the desired position, near the center of the pond, and anchored it by stringing the anchor wire through a couple of cinderblocks, that are sitting on some spare pond liner (to protect the pond floor):

Here are some more pictures of the island in position:

It’ll probably take the ducks a few days to get used to it there. Hopefully it won’t freak them out as much as the upturned boat did (which I have moved to the pond bank for now). It looks like it fits much more than that did.

My waders seems to have sprung a leak around my knee; I could feel cold water seeping in, and the leg of my work overalls and sock was wet. I guess I need to try to patch it, or buy a new one:

That concludes the duck island project, at least for now. It may get tweaks over time. I hope the ducks like it, once they get used to it being there. It was a fun little project, started almost on a whim, and mostly using materials I already had on hand.