Category: News (Page 2 of 3)

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.

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!  

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!

We will have a tent at the “Here’s Headley” event on the Headley Village Green on Saturday 14th September. There will be stalls representing the clubs, societies, organisations and activities in and around Headley so there will be lots to see. Do come along to say hello and find out more about our plans for the pond.

We are also planning an open meeting at the end of September to talk about the history of the pond, our plans for ongoing maintenance and opportunities for volunteering. Dates and details will be announced soon.

After a warm May, June has started rather colder and with much less rain. The lush new green growth isn’t quite so vibrant now, and there are some changes in the flowers around the banks. This Spring has been exceptionally favourable for foxgloves, and the pond has it’s own colourful display which look very pretty.

At first glance the surface of the pond looks a bit muddy and dull, but if you stop and look closer you will see it is alive with insect life. There are pond skaters all over the surface, and there are flying insects filling the air above them. No wonder the swallows do a low-level fly-by over ponds, they must fill their beaks very quickly.

There is one flower which although it is rather pretty, we really don’t want to see. Himalayan Balsam is an invasive species and it is spreading rapidly. It’s a tall, vigurous plant and it takes over areas of damp ground at the expense of our local flowers, which can’t compete. It has a long flowering season which benefits bees towards the end of summer, but that is only a small advantage. When we have access to the pond for maintenance again, we will be attempting to clear Himalayan Balsam as best we can.

Hopefully we will get a bit more rain to keep the spring flowing and the pond full for the summer.

After plenty of rainfall (always useful for a pond!) we have had some glorious sunshine and nature is making the most of it. The yellow flag irises have put on a big display and are now beginning to fade.

Along the banks we have the very obvious buttercups and hidden in the grass below you will find the tiny blue flowers of speedwell and the pink Herb-Robert, our native geranium.

Above the water you will see the elegant blue damselflies pairing up to lay eggs. And on the subject of eggs, there has been a couple of moorhens bobbing around for a few weeks now. Could they have a nest somewhere?

Mallard ducks will have paired up by now and that usually leaves a number of bachelor ducks with nothing much to do, and we have had literally flying visits from some of those. Better luck with the girls next year maybe.

Mr. or Mrs. Heron calls in from time to time and I have mixed feelings about them. They are spectacular birds and wonderful to watch but they do eat rather a lot of frogs, newts and fish which is rather sad but I suppose is the natural order of things.

The island is becoming covered in bracken and the grass on the banks is growing. There’s a temptation to tidy this up but vegetation cover on the margins of water provides vital protection for all the emerging young species so we’ll leave that well alone.

I wonder what we will see in June?

Neville Merritt