The results of the Fleet Pond Society (FPS) Photography Competition for 2009 were given at the FPS Annual General Meeting held in February this year. The full results of the competition (winners and highly commended) are given on the FPS website, here we give just the winners in each of the three categories: Birds, Work & Play and Sunrise/Sunset.

The competition was judged by Richard Warburton who is a local professional commercial photographer, based in Church Crookham. He is a member of the British Institute of Professional Photographers.

Please click each photo for a larger version.

We are in the process of setting up the competition for this year, 2010. If you have any views or ideas on how we could do things differently or better we would be delighted to hear from you. Please leave a comment below this post or else email me.

ADULTS

Category: Birds – Winner: Mark Hodson

Category: Work & Play – Winner: Marrion Boorman

Category: Sunrise/Sunset – Winner: Mark Hodson

UNDER 16’s

Category: Birds – Winner: Josephine Hodson

Category: Work & Play – Winner: Thomas Bristow

Category: Sunrise/Sunset – Winner: Thomas Hodson

Jim Storey writes:

Planning for our exciting event on 22 May began today when Laura Hill, the OPAL Coordinator at Imperial College visited the Pond to discuss the basics for our joint event to celebrate International Biodiversity Day together. She was checking out what we had to offer and was well impressed with this little watery gem of ours. We’ll be running a wide variety of nature-based activities with a wide variety of national and local groups at the Picnic Spot as well as Boathouse Corner and The Green. Fleet’s ‘Captured Moments’ photographers will be recording the day for us. So please put it in your diary!

For the first step on the path to a brighter future for Fleet Pond see here.

Colin Gray writes:

We plan to tackle the bat corridor between Gelvert Glade and Fugelmere Marsh (see map on About page above).  Work has been done to open the woodland but we have not quite broken through to the marsh so there will be a few more young trees to fell.

Further details on the volunteer event schedule and meeting details can be found here.

The task on 14 February was to tackle the birch on the Dry Heath.  This was a follow-on from the Carbon Army Challenge task last December.

We were joined by Andy Golder and his team of Wildlife Explorers, complete with assistants and parents.

Cathy, A New Driver For The Tractor!

Enjoying A Well-Earned Break!

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire! Burning The Birch

Members Of ‘The Last Of The Summer Wine Team’ In Action

Geoff Dee writes:

On a cold Friday morning in February, 5 members of the “Last Of The Summer Wine” team (Terry, Nick, Cathy, Mandy and Geoff) undertook a task erecting fencing to protect nesting sites in the western reedbed from intrusion by dogs (and people).

The group met at 09.30 at the Rangers’ Workshop and worked until 12.30 with a short break for coffee and cakes.

This friendly team meets on an ad-hoc basis at 3 to 4 week intervals to take on small to medium size tasks which the rangers find hard to fit into their schedules.  This is in addition to the regular conservation days which take place on the second Sunday of each month (excluding July and August).

There is always room for willing pairs of hands to help out.  All tools and gloves are provided and no previous experience is needed.

Anyone interested should contact Terry Austin on 01252 624925 (tsandja2010@live.co.uk) for further details.