All posts by David Pottinger

Keep An Eye Out For The Cattle At The Pond

Plants and Animals

2013-07-11_Cattle One

Introducing Kite (facing) – an Irish Moiled (rare breed)

From the Hart Countryside Services Facebook site:

Kite and Hazel the cattle at Fleet Pond are very happy in Fugelmere Marsh (the grazing enclosure to the left of Sandy Bay if looking at the water) they are owned by Miller’s Ark there are lots of sedges to eat and in this beautiful weather they have been able to get to areas that normally are too wet for them

2013-07-11_Cattle Two

Introducing Hazel – a Belted Galloway (traditional breed)

Some background on Miller’s Ark:

Miller’s Ark Animals is based on the Earl of Malmesbury’s estate at Hook in Hampshire and the home farm specialises in breeding Irish Moiled rare breed cattle, traditional Belted Galloways, rare breed sheep, Pygmy goats. Kune Kune pigs, standard and miniature donkeys, ducks, geese, turkeys and chicken.

For related posts from previous years, please see here and here.

Photos: David Pottinger

Big Butterfly Count, 20 July – 11 August

Conservation, Plants and Animals

Butterfly Count 2013

From the web site above:

The Big Butterfly Count is a nationwide survey aimed at helping us assess the health of our environment. It was launched in 2010 and has rapdily become the world’s biggest survey of butterflies. Almost 27,000 people took part in 2012, counting 223,000 individual butterflies and day-flying moths across the UK.

They have a nice butterfly ID chart as a free download from the site.

Here are some interesting and informative articles on butterflies that can be seen at Fleet Pond:

As an additional source of information, you can watch the Springwatch Guide to Butterflies and Moths this coming Friday (BBC2, 9 pm):

Join the Springwatch team for an in-depth view of the UK’s most colourful and fascinating creatures, with private lives that are often stranger than fiction. Living all over our countryside as well as in our own back gardens, butterflies and moths are the animal world’s ultimate transformers. Filming their extraordinary life-cycles in ultra-close up, the team bring you the latest science on their remarkable adaptations and lifestyles.

Have You Seen The Creative Carvings?

Miscellaneous, People

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A Heron Eyeing Some Fish

David Pottinger writes:

If you came to the Wildlife Open Day at the Pond in May this year, you may have seen the wood carving talking place. The carvings are still there and being greatly appreciated!

They’re near the picnic area (see map of Fleet Pond on the About page above for details).

For example, a recent visitor to the Pond, Jean Belgrove, writes:

We have spent such a happy weekend exploring Fleet Pond with children.

Particularly, the wood carvings at the picnic area were fantastic fun.  We spent ages there enjoying and identifying the carvings and playing balancing games on the logs surrounding this area.

To have logs of different sizes on the ground for children to play balancing games and appropriately lengthened poles for them to make dens was a wonderful facility.

Many thanks to you all for a heavenly experience.

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A Handy Place To Sit And Listen To Some Wise Words

If you have some time and are looking for something different to do, why not pay a visit to the Pond and take a look at the carvings and seats?

2013-06-27 animal

Can You Guess What This Is?

Photo credits: David Pottinger

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Photography

Colin Gray Carnival 2013

Colin Gray is the Chairman of Fleet Pond Society (FPS). Recently, FPS participated in Fleet Carnival with the the theme ‘The Pirates of Fleet Pond‘. The impressive picture of Colin above was taken during the event.

If you have any photos that relate to Fleet Pond or to FPS, please consider sharing them on our Flickr Group: Fleet Pond Society.

FPS also runs a popular Annual Photographic Competition and, hot off the press, here is the theme and details for 2013.

Please consider entering and best of luck!

Photo Comp Poster 2013 b

The results for the photographic competition for 2012 can be found here as well as (under Pictures on the main menu) the results from earlier years.

Photo credits: John Fletcher (with kind permission)

Fleet Pond Restoration Project In The News

Conservation

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPpeabwsJ0g&w=560&h=315]

This video gives a nice overview of the Fleet Pond Restoration Project and can be found on the EnvironmentAgencyTV‘s channel (the official YouTube channel for the Environment Agency in England).

There have recently been articles on the Sustainability and Environmental Management Award for this project in the technical press (click on links for details):

as well by the Environment Agency themselves.