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.
Category: News (Page 2 of 3)
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 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.
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.