All posts by David Pottinger

Fleet Pond From The Air – Islands Too!

Education, Photography

GoogleMaps Fleet Pond Islands 2013

Click To Enlarge

David Pottinger writes:

The screenshot above is a great aerial view of the new islands at Fleet Pond and was obtained by using Google Maps (GM).

After selecting the appropriate area in GM, if you click on the Photos option on the upper rhs you also get an interesting selection of pictures taken around the pond – see screenshot below.

GoogleMaps Fleet Pond Photos 2013

Another interesting and similar photo site is mentioned here.

For a much older aerial shot of Fleet Pond, and as way of comparison, see here.

Image attributes: Google Maps UK, and the third-party data providers are specified in the lower rhs of the above images.

A Topsy-Turvy Year For Butterflies At The Pond

Conservation, Education, Plants and Animals

Peter Martin writes:

“The atrocious weather during 2012 was expected to have a disastrous effect on the butterfly population in 2013 and, sure enough, there were so few butterflies around during the spring that I have written about this in an article for the autumn edition of the Fleet Pond Society (FPS) newsletter. A really hot July seemed to reverse the trend, as suddenly there were butterflies everywhere.

A “Butterfly Count” run by “Butterfly Conservation” from 20 July until 11 August showed that 15 of the 21 species listed had actually increased in numbers and 12 of those were up by 50%. The Small White topped the chart with the Large White second, which was surprising bearing in mind how few of them were around during the spring. Numbers of these two butterflies were up 300% compared with the “Butterfly Count” last year.

The biggest surprise for me was to see as many as 18 Small Tortoiseshell butterflies on one day. This particular species was brought almost to extinction by a predator from the continent a few years ago and I only saw 7 in the whole of last year. This year I saw a total of 81.

Details of my butterfly count at Fleet Pond are due to appear in the FPS Autumn Newsletter.”

You can obtain the FPS newsletter by joining the Society – details here.

Peter has written a number of interesting articles on butterflies at the Pond eg please see here (different locations) and here (different species).

There is a general article on UK butterfly numbers for 2013 here.

Keeping An Eye Out For Bats At The Pond

Education, Plants and Animals, Walks

Bats F Pond 22 Sept 13 sm

Rachel Jones, our Countryside Ranger, writes:

“We had another wonderful evening on Friday’s Bat Walk at Fleet Pond with a good turn out of over 20 keen adults and children. Rangers Rachel and Izzy guided them around Fleet Pond which again did not disappoint and with a warm dry evening there was plenty of bat activity throughout.

What a brilliant place Fleet Pond is for bats!

Along the woodland paths we saw and heard Pippistrelles and possibly Brown Long-eared bats. This bat has a faint call and exceptionally sensitive hearing, tricky to spot by eye as it often flys high in the tree foliage.

Then around the far side of the pond closer to the waters edge we had an impressive display from Daubentons. These bats are known as ‘water bats’ as they swoop down across the waters edge using their large feet or tail to catching insects on the waters surface.

We could hear the echolocation ‘raspberry bursts’ on the bat detectors they make when they are very close to and catch an insect. We followed their flight patterns across the water with our torches.”

Ed. It sounds a fascinating evening!

Sunday 22 September Is The Day!

Fund Raising, People

bbc c gray

David Pottinger writes:

This Sunday, Colin Gray, Chairman of Fleet Pond Society (FPS), will be taking on the challenge of a 21 mile circular trek, visiting a large number of wildlife and environmentally important sites along the way.

Full details of the trek can be found here.

Through FPS, Colin has put an enormous amount of time, effort and passion into conservation activities at Fleet Pond Nature Reserve and this event is one more example of his unstinting commitment!

The purpose of the event this Sunday is to raise funds for the Fleet Pond Clearwater Campaign (see here for details). This campaign has already delivered numerous improvements to the pond and additional funds will allow us to take this even further.

If you would like to sponsor Colin for this event, please see his fundraising page here – all donations will be extremely welcome.

We all wish Colin the very best on the big day!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBtVcLvioIE&w=560&h=315]

Chris Packham talking about the Fleet Pond Clearwater Campaign

Here are some interesting photos taken by Colin during the practice runs for the event:

Highland Calf Sprats Hatch Farm smHighland calf at Sprats Hatch Farm

Tundry Pond smTundry Pond

Photo credits: Colin Gray

Bat Walk At Fleet Pond This Friday

Education, Plants and Animals, Walks

Rachel Jones, our Countryside Ranger, says:

“Rangers Will and Rachel had a great batty evening last Saturday (14 Sept) when up to 30 adults and children turned up to the first (of two) Fleet Pond bat walks!

We were so lucky with the weather, it cleared enough so that volunteer Spike could contribute his astronomy knowledge adding to the frenzy of bat activity all around the pond. Great bat friendly weather condition’s enabled us to see and hear at least 3 species of bat.

All participants had a great evening, all new to bat detecting and some new to Fleet Pond!  We had time to chat a bit about the exciting work that has been going on there and how the wildlife is thriving.

We are looking forward to Friday evening for the second bat walk, fingers crossed we are lucky with the weather again!”

As mentioned above, if you missed the first walk and fancy a bat encounter, please pencil in this coming Friday, 20th September: 19:00 – 21:00.

Booking and other details can be found here.

If you’re curious as to what bat walks are like, take a look here.