Category Archives: Plants and Animals

Keep An Eye Out For These Attractive Flowers

Photography, Plants and Animals

lesser-celandine-sm

Month of March: Lesser Celandine

David Pottinger writes:

Michelle Salter, Secretary of Fleet Pond Society, has previously written a very interesting series of articles on some of the wildflowers that can seen at Fleet Pond during the spring and summer months. They all contain original photography as well as illuminating background information.

Why not keep an eye out for some of these flowers when you next take a walk around the Pond?

Here’s a listing of the articles:

March: Lesser Celandine and the Brookly Stream (see picture above)

April: Marsh Marigold, Cuckoo Flower, Dog-violet & Forget-me-not

May: Bogbean, Garlic Mustard and Skunk Cabbage

June: Yellow Flag Iris, Honeysuckle and Yellow Water-lily

July: Heather, Lichen, Meadowsweet and Yellow Loosestrife

August: Berries, Rosebay Willowherb and Purple Loosestrife

Picture credit: Michelle Salter

Improving The Wildlife Diversity At Fleet Pond

Conservation, Plants and Animals

2014-aquatic-recovery-zone

Plan for the Fish Exclusion Zone (click to enlarge; feature legend on rhs)

Colin Gray, Chairman of Fleet Pond Society, writes:

Fleet Pond Society’s Clearwater Campaign will be providing funds for measures to enhance the wildlife diversity of Fleet Pond.

Two projects are planned:

Project 1: Reed Relocation (Eastern Side)

The new line of islands along the eastern side of the Pond will be planted with reeds taken from one of the main existing reedbeds. Brookly Reedbed has reached a maturity where there is little water within the reeds. A series of channels cut into this reedbed will help invigorate the reeds and bring water into the bed providing new habitat and feeding areas for the wildlife within the reeds.

The reed rhizomes (roots) removed in this way will provide stocks to plant on the eastern islands. This will widen the area of reed on the eastern side and provide reeds that grow in shallow water, ideal habitat to reedbed birds like the Water Rail and, who knows, might eventually attract the return of the Bittern, not recorded at Fleet Pond for many years.

The island closest to Sandy Bay will be planted by volunteers as the dredging pontoons cannot negotiate the shallow water so close to the beach.

Project 2: Creation of a Fish Exclusion Zone (Western Side)

The second project is the creation of an area of open water segregated from the main Pond by a permeable curtain. The curtain will allow free passage of water but will restrict the ability of fish to enter the zone. Fish will be removed from this new zone by the use of netting and electro stunning. The latter method stuns the fish for a short time so they can be carefully netted and relocated in the main Pond.

The objective is to permit the natural regeneration of aquatic plants and invertebrates safe from fish predation to create a reservoir of these vulnerable species to restock the main Pond when the dredging work is completed.

Removing fish will allow zooplankton (tiny creatures like daphnia for example) to thrive. These feed on the algae that is in suspension in the water and which is partly responsible for the very cloudy nature of the water. If the algae are removed in this way it helps to clarify the water allowing light to reach the seeds in the base mud of the pond. A further aid to regeneration of aquatic plant life.

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!

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.