Category: News (Page 3 of 3)

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