The Headley Fete is held on the Village Green every other year, and this was the year for it! Despite a threatening forcast and a bit of a breeze, we barely had a sprinkle of rain and lots of people turned up. We had our stall there as usual to raise awareness and recruit more supporters. It was also great to meet so many FVWPA Friends who dropped by for a chat. We ran a Pond Friends Treasure Hunt for the little ones, although it was hard to compete with the live animal petting farm behind us! We all had an enjoyable day nevertheless and we are already looking forward to our next event.
Category: News (Page 1 of 3)
We were sad to hear of the death of Harry North on 17th July, aged 91. He will be sadly missed by very many in the village.
He was one of our founding committee members when the pond restoration project began, and among other things helped to build the outflow weir (see photo).
The water rose unexpectedly quickly and they had to hurry the construction, completing it in 10 days in order to beat the rising tide. Finally water flowed over the weir on 24th October 2003, and we had our pond back!
Jo Smith
Chairman FVWPA
This year we were able to tackle to Himalayan Balsam as soon as flowers were spotted, and a group of FVWPA volunteers spent Sunday morning tackling the invasive plant. It was important to do this before it had a chance to set seed, because it is an annual, fewer seeds means fewer plants next year.
We had some isolated plants in hard-to reach places, masses of plants smothering some areas, and others dominated by stands of Himalayan Balsam over two metres high. However, by the end of the morning every single flowering Himalayan Balsam around the pond was destroyed except for a couple on the island. We’ll have to find a way of reaching those!
We also dragged a channel through the floating grass to provide an easier passage between the two halves of the pond. However, there is probably plenty of water under the grass so no fish were trapped in the “muddy end”, which is what we feared.
On the topic of fish, while we were catching our breath and enjoying hot coffee and biscuits a kingfisher swooped down, grabbed a fish from the surface and zoomed off to a secluded tree branch to eat it. What a treat to see!
We will probably need another Balsam Bash later in the summer as more flowers appear. If you would like to join us for good company, chocolate biscuits and a chance to see the kingfisher make sure you add your name to our Friends list to make sure you receive an invitation.
Thank you everyone that came along to help, it was great to see you and we can definitely say “Mission Accomplished”.
I was alerted by a sharp-eyed local resident to this bike which had appeared in the middle of our pond. I popped down to fish it out with our grass-raking grapnel and while I was there, I had a look around to see what was going on.
I was delighted to see hundreds of small fish but due to their size, muddiness of the water and complete lack of cooperation on their part I couldn’t identify them. How they got there in those numbers is a mystery, because the pond dried up only a few years ago.
We are blessed by some very beautiful wild flowers which although they can be very small they make up for that by their lovely colours and form, and also some brilliant names. I use the free PlantNet app on my phone to identify them, and I much prefer the common names so that’s what I’ll use.
This needs no introduction, but the display of foxgloves by the pond is spectacular. The bees love them.
This one is less obvious but the name makes up for it: Broadleaf Enchanter’s Nightshade:
You might think this is a buttercup, but this is a special type of buttercup called St. Anthony’s Turnip. I’m not sure why!
Another very tiny one, a very small type of geranium called Little Robin.
Apparently, plants with “wort” in their name have healing properties so you can probably guess what Hedge Woundwort was used for:
Finally, the most spectacular of all and easiest to photograph if the damselflies could please get out of the way: Yellow Flag
Here’s a quick update on the long-awaited work by Hampshire County Council Highways on our pond. They arrived in March as promised but had to go away until a DNA check on the water indicated there were no protected species present. They returned in May to do the scheduled work to clear the reeds which were choking the top quarter of the pond and remove the silt. In addition, they have been clearing the pipes and gullies into and out of the pond. We have also won a new gate to replace the broken fence section!
The work was done strictly in accordance not only with wildlife legislation but also the guidance given by the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. The work was limited to one quarter of the pond which meant that there was a clear escape route for any wildlife into the much larger undisturbed area which was strictly off-limits for the workmen. I was very pleased to see that these environmental protection requirements were observed to the letter by the contractors. I was also impressed by their professionalism and obvious concern for the environment. These guys are contracted by HCC Highways as pond specialists and do this type of work all the time. I was expecting a lot more damage to plants around the pond but because they used a floating digger-tank, disturbance was minimal.
The net result is that we have a much larger area of water now which will be attractive to ducks and other pond creatures for many years to come. We still have more grass raking in the main pond area to do in the autumn but now we have discovered the winning technique this will be a lot easier!
Bank Holiday Monday 5th May was the 100th Anniversary Celebration for the Headley Village Hall. There were stalls on the Village Green and lots of activities in the Hall to recognise the many and varied community uses of the building over the years. FVWPA took a space on the Green to promote our activities and despite the cold wind and occasional showers, we had a great time!
Our faithful gazebo came out again, and we have salvaged some display panels which we used to create a display of our history and plans for the future. We organised a Treasure Hunt for the smaller children and a Word Search game for the older ones. Hugo wouldn’t miss a public appearance for the world, and he did a great job supervising activities.
We would like to thank those that made such generous donations and we welcomed new Friends to the FVWPA. Thanks also to the Volunteers who helped man the stall during the day, even though it was rather cold at times! We hope to meet new and current Volunteers at our next event which will be a Balsam Bash, some time in the next couple of months when the flowers appear. Details will be circulated nearer the time.
Spring is an incredible season for all wild areas, and particularly ponds. Although the land around our pond might look very green, hidden among the new grass and leaves are some very beautiful flowers, even if some of them are very small! Here are a few that I spotted in early May.
Our heading photo is Arum maculatum which is the posh name for Lords & Ladies. In the autumn the flower will have become a mass of highly toxic red berries which will be very easy to spot!
Other flowers I noticed were Common wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella)
Wood violet (Viola riviniana)
Wood Speedwell (Veronica montana)
Using Latin names makes it appear that I know what I am writing about but that is far from the case. I use an excellent App called PlantNet, which is free and absolutely devoid of advertising.
Headley Greening Campaign Launch Meeting Agenda
Hugo was very disappointed that I forgot to take him to our Quiz Night, so I have to make it up to him by letting him man (or heron) our table at the Headley Greening Campaign Launch Meeting. This will be held on Tuesday 18th February at 8pm in the Church Centre, Headley. Here’s the agenda:
- Introduction by Headley CAN
- Short contribution from one of our very junior community members
- An overview of the Greening Campaign, the Five Pillars and free services available by Terena Plowright
- Q&A
- Opportunity to look in more detail at each of the five pillars that interest you and meet the Headley CAN Leads:
- Space For Nature
- Energy Efficient Warmer Homes
- Health Impact of Climate change
- Cycle of the Seed
- Waste Prevention
Tea/Coffee/Nibbles will be available. Do come along to find out more, and sign up if you want to be involved in the free services, guest lectures and training that is being provided over the next 12 months as part of the Greening Campaign. There are practical things we can all be a part of that are fun and make a real difference.
Hugo is getting very excited. He doesn’t get out much in the winter so he and I are both looking forward to seeing you.
Neville Merritt, Deputy Chairman FVWPA
This video was taken from the dashcam of our Treasurer, Cllr. Steve Thair as he was driving down Pond Road recently. It shows a Muntjac deer crossing the road to visit the pond.
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!