Established in 2001 to preserve and maintain the Headley Village Pond as a wildlife haven

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Work Party #2: Grass Raking

On Saturday our willing Volunteers gathered again for a morning of wet, muddy, backbreaking activity! Working under the guidance of the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, we are maintaining the pond to maximising the ecological benefit. Our task this time was to remove the grass that was growing in the margins and floating in the shallow eastern end of the pond. The roots were trapping silt and over time would have completely covered the water.

The job was a tough one! The grass in the margins was securely rooted in the mud but with dedicated effort from the team, a good quantity was hoisted onto the banks. Following the advice of the Trust, we left the grass and roots on the bank so anything caught up in the raking could scurry back into the water.

The grass in the middle of the water was even more challenging, but we had a plan. With a length of rope and a small grapnel anchor, Glen and Mike worked an impressive hauling operation and cleared a large area of floating weed.

We also found some very interesting artifacts in the pond as you might expect, but more of that later!

When the pond has settled down again we will survey what grass is still remaining. Next time we will know what works best and come armed with not one but two grapnel anchor ropes!

We would like to thank our FVWPA Volunteers who got tired, wet and muddy to help make a difference to the wildlife in and around the pond. To remind us why we were there, a bank vole gave a swimming demonstration, we had fly-bys from dragonflies and a grey wagtail that flew away when we started flew right back when we finished.

One last thing – thank you very much to the kind young lady who dropped by to give us packets of biscuits for our coffee break!

Greetings from the Boo Crew!

Wishing all our Friends and supporters a spookylicious Halloween! Hugo the Happy Heron is convinced his ghost costume is very convincing. I’m not so sure, there’s a dead giveaway (sorry) that no spooky costume can cover up. Anyway, if you are passing down Arford Road look up and give Hugo a wave!

What’s That?

Have you seen something at the pond but you aren’t sure what it is? We have a number of guides on our Resources Page which are links to our favourite websites and apps for butterflies, moths, birds, plants and dragonflies.

The picture above is (we think) a Light Crimson Underwing moth which is very similar to its Dark Crimson cousin. Their caterpillars feed only on oak tree leaves, which are around the pond in abundance. This specimen probably keeps turning left because something has taken a chunk out of its wing. That doesn’t seem to have affected its appetite though.

Our First Balsam Bash!

Saturday marked a very special occasion. The first FVWPA Work Party since the re-launch of the Association assembled at the pond for two hours of Balsam Bashing. Ten volunteers braved the rain, mud and prickly stuff to remove as much of the Himalayan Balsam as possible. This is an invasive species which grows and spreads rapidly, and can blot out native flora.

Fortunately, it is an annual plant and relatively easy to remove by chopping it down before the seed heads form. Unfortunately, due to delays in granting us the HCC Licence to Cultivate we were a bit late and seed heads had formed. Mature seed pods explode dramatically like miniature fireworks when touched, sending seeds in all directions The only way to deal with them was to sneak up when they weren’t looking and pop the seed heads in a plastic sack. By the end of the morning we had filled 12 sacks with seed heads. Some seeds will inevitably have been dropped but at least there are 12 sacksful less than there would have been.

Next year we will be doing another Balsam Bash but earlier in the season, as soon as the pink flowers appear. That way they will have no chance to set seed so the spread of Himalayan Balsam will be greatly reduced.

So, a big Thank You to all the volunteers who helped. We had a lot of chats, got to know each other better and finished the morning with a nice warm glow of satisfaction, knowing that the Fullers Vale pond has Friends again.

Our next Work Party will be rather more strenuous, raking the rogue grass out of the margins to clear the water flow and stop the encroachment of the bank. I have a cunning plan involving a contraption (my daughter’s description) and rope, so watch out for details!

Good News!

What an amazing week we have had! The previous week we had received the brilliant news that following the intervention of Cllr. Debbie Curnow-Ford, Hampshire County Council Highways have granted us a Licence To Cultivate. This means we finally have permission to maintain the pond margins. As a result, on Monday we were able to hold our “Re-launch” of Fullers Vale Wildlife Pond Association (see our History page for the original story).

We had a great turnout from local supporters, including some of the founding members of FVWPA. Jo Smith gave a fascinating talk on the history of the pond and Neville Merritt brought everyone up to date with the latest news, the visit from Hampshire & IoW Wildlife Trust and our plans for work parties. We were able to sign up more Friends and Volunteers, and we had some very generous donations which has enabled us to organise insurance for the work parties. Our heron Happy Hugo was joined for the occasion by a mallard hand-carved by Jo’s father.

On Thursday, we were invited to the Headley Society for the “Tell Us In Ten” where Hugo and Neville gave short talk on the work of FVWPA. We were able to sign up more Friends and received more generous donations, so we really feel we have properly started again!

Finally, on Saturday we met at the pond itself with Cllr. Debbie Curnow-Ford and Cllr. Anthony Williams to celebrate the breakthrough that allows us access to the pond. We took photos, introduced Hugo to Cllr. Curnow-Ford and had a tour of the planned work. On reflection, that represented all the tiers of Local Government: County, District, Parish and Community!

Cllr. Debbie Curnow-Ford said “I am so pleased, that following my intervention, Hampshire County Council have reviewed their decision and have now granted a Cultivation License to Headley Parish Council allowing FVWPA to manage the vegetation and banks of the pond.  This is a great example of residents’ action getting the right outcome. The County Council have confirmed that they will be helping FVWPA with excavation work next year. I will be monitoring this!”

Hampshire & IoW Wildlife Trust Visit

Hugo the Happy Heron had his first outing on Monday when we had a visit from Katy Gary, who is the Wilder Neighbourhoods Officer for the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. We had invited Katy to see the pond and to make recommendations for maintenance and improvements for wildlife. Jo Smith and I bombarded poor Katy with questions but Hugo kept very quiet, I think he was a little overwhelmed.

The good news is that Katy thought the pond looks very healthy. There seems to be plenty of oxygenation, probably because it is spring fed and not stagnant. She gave us some excellent advice on what to remove to keep the pond clear, how to minimise disturbance to existing wildlife and tips on how to improve the access for smaller creatures.

The more immediate problem is the proliferation of Himalayan Balsam which needs to be cut back before it launches its seeds everywhere, making the problem worse next year. Let’s hope we can resolve the red tape over access to the pond soon so work parties can get stuck in.

We are very grateful to Katy for making the trip over and giving us encouragement. Hugo looked grateful but still seemed lost for words. Hopefully he will overcome his shyness in time for our first public meeting on Monday 30th September at 8pm in Headley Village Hall. See you there!

Neville Merritt

Here’s Headley and Our Heron!

What fun we had at Here’s Headley! It was wonderful to meet so many interested supporters for our work. We are looking forward to finding a route through all the red tape so we can start volunteer work and fundraising. Watch this space for news on that!

Star attraction on our stand was our heron mascot. We hadn’t even asked if it was a Mr. or Mrs. so we invited visitors of all ages to help us Name The Heron. We had great fun judging all the entries, which ranged from the highly imaginative but unpronounceable “Imimnim”, through “Heron McHeronface” (I don’t think that was a child’s entry) to our favourite which is “Happy Hugo The Heron” from Darcie.  Thank you Darcie – Mr. Heron now has a name and a personality which will stay with him for ever.

August at the Pond

Just like in other parts of the countryside, the vibrant green of new growth has given way to the mature colours of established greenery, interspersed with rather dry-looking grass stalks and spent flower stems. This is the time of year when the wildflower banks should really be mown and cleared, allowing the seeds to establish for next spring. Unfortunately due to some red tape we don’t yet have access to the pond banks to do the work, but hopefully we can catch up soon.

One of the few flowers on the pond banks in August is the stunning Evening Primrose. This plant was introduced in the 1600s and has become widely naturalised especially along poor, well drained substrate such as on roadside verges. Many wild flowers seem to thrive where we least expect them and become very miserable if we try to cultivate them in nutrient-rich gardens. Evening Primrose is still cultivated commercially, and I’m sure you will have seen Evening Primrose Oil-based products for alternative medicines. It’s a great flower for us by the pond because the bees and butterflies love it and they need food sources like this after the spring flowers have faded.

Our link to the Houses of Parliament!

Do you know where the water from the pond goes? Apart from some that evaporates, some that soaks away and some that gets drunk by deer, the water flowing out of the pond forms the source of the River Ar. This stream wanders through Arford where there was presumably once a ford, then into the River Wey by Frensham Lane. Water from our pond then continues a long and winding journey to Weybridge where it joins the River Thames. By this time our water has been joined by other water from lots of sources but still it continues its journey to the sea. As it passes through London it goes right by the Queen Elizabeth Tower where the hour bell Big Ben hangs, then on for many more twisty miles until eventually it reaches the sea. So when you see a trickle of water going from our pond over the sluice and under the road, you know where it will end up!  

July at the Pond

The flush of Sping flowers has died away but we are left with something rather magical – water lilly flowers! They make me think of childhood stories involving water babies, frogs and princesses.

Much of the pond activity is as usual below the surface, and it will be teeming with juvenile amphibians and invertibrates.

We had an escaped traffic cone in the sluice duct but by the time we had worked out how to recover it, it had been recaptured and returned to it’s herd. The last thing we want is feral cones in the pond!

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