Stefano Ianiro is a wildlife photographer and video creator.
He loves nature and all the different creatures that we call wildlife, and he’s committed to bringing to us the clearest picture of how these creatures survive and thrive in nature.
And he’s doing a lovely job.
For this reason, some time ago, he built a small pond from some spare materials so he could attract birds and take photos of them.
As he explained, in that project, his main focus was to film animals visiting the water.
However, as time went by, he realized it would be a good idea to build a larger pond that would benefit the species it had already attracted- and even more.
He was executing a beautiful vision.
Ianiro wanted to provide the animals visiting his pond with the best habitat.
At the same time, he wanted to experiment with planting some native wildflowers and see how this would work out.
Indeed, early last year, he began his journey to creating a bigger pond, and he recently shared a timelapse of how the whole thing unfolded.
From day 1 to 100.
First of all, he picked a patch of land, marked how big he wanted his pond to be and he started digging.
He dug about 4 feet deep.
This depth will help maintain the water temperature throughout the year. The next thing he did was cover the dug-up area with a pond liner.
Although he had no idea what he was doing, as he admitted, he and his team did their best and lined the cover without any major issues.
Time to fill the pond.
He did this one barrel at a time, which must have been exhausting.
Then, he finished it all up by putting stones around the water and extra sand to make sure there would be no cover left exposed, as it degrades in sunlight.
He also built himself an in-ground observation blind to get the best photos of the wildlife that would soon come to the newly-built pond.
He then moved on to building all the things he had to make in order to provide a safe habitat for native wildlife.
He built them tiny homes.
He removed all the grass around the pond and set up nest boxes, logs, and everything these creatures would need to live and thrive there.
Soon, the first visitors came by, and by the summer, the pond was already at its best.
Bluebirds and other kinds of birds built their nests, hatched their eggs, and took care of their little ones there until they were ready to fly.
Insects also flew by.
Some spent time there, which gave Ianiro the chance to photograph them.
Autumn was a little harder, given that Ianiro also left for a while and had no idea what was going on while he was away, but when he returned he fixed everything.
In the meantime, he made a new acquaintance.
A kitten came along.
It was a little kitty that was malnourished. Little by little, he got her to come closer, fed her, and she soon became part of the family.
The pond is still there and it’s at its best.
See the backyard project that’s earned Stefano over 9M views in his beautiful video below!
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