Category: News (Page 1 of 2)

Bank Holiday Monday 5^th May was the 100^th 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.

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:

1. Introduction by Headley CAN
2. Short contribution from one of our very junior community members
3. An overview of the Greening Campaign, the Five Pillars and free services available by Terena Plowright
4. Q&A
5. 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

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!

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!

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!

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 30^th September at 8pm in Headley Village Hall. See you there!

Neville Merritt

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.

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.