Nick Keeley In Liverpool Last Year During His Fund-Raising Bike Ride

Last year, Fleet Pond Society raised over £4,600 towards the Clearwater Campaign. This covered donations, collection boxes, Christmas cards and the BBC Community Chest grant.

We’ve had a variety of posts on the blog that detail these initiatives, including Nick’s Bike Ride (see above) and the Christmas Card Competition.

We’d like to say a big thank you to all of you that have so generously supported our efforts to help maintain and improve Fleet Pond Nature Reserve.

If you have any imaginative (and practical) ideas on how we could raise additional funds for the pond, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please remember that every little bit helps!

Comments and suggestions can be left below this post or else emailed directly to the Chairman, Colin Gray.

Please remember that Fleet Pond is your pond and that we’re very lucky to have it!

Here’s a reminder that the current FPS Photographic Competition has a deadline of 20th January 2011.

We’ve made it exceptionally easy to enter this year, either you can just email the picture as an attachment or send or deliver hard-copy. There are no restrictions on picture size or on type of camera and entry is totally FREE and the competition is open to everyone. It couldn’t be easier!

Naturally pictures need to be taken at Fleet Pond Nature Reserve.

Please read the full competition details that can be found here (this includes the email and postal address for entries).

Why not take a chance and give it a go? We really look forward to your entries!

A Family Hard At Work At A Previous Sunday Volunteer Event

Colin Gray writes:

“I hope you (the volunteers) all had a happy Christmas.

I plan to take a check on water levels before Sunday but hope to put us all out into the marshes to tackle scrub and saplings.  The options are a return to Gelvert Marsh, reached by the access point by the Sandy Bay bridge, or a venture into the southern section of Fugelmere Marsh which we can reach by a track through the woodland starting at the Westover Road end.

Both have areas of holly within the woodland which can be tackled by anyone who does not wish to risk sinking in the mud.”

The locations referred to above can be found on the map given in the About page to this blog and new volunteers will be very welcome to join us at the above task.

We meet at the Countryside Workshop, Old Pump House Close (next to 65 Kenilworth Road) at 9.00 a.m. for a 9.15. Signposted directions to the site are available if anyone comes late.

Current volunteers comprise a wide range of ages of both genders. Volunteers will need old clothing, waterproof if rain is expected, protective gloves and wellington boots. We have a supply of gloves and boots if you do not own these.

Examples of previous volunteer events can be found by using the search facility on the top rhs of this blog.

For more information contact:

Task Co-ordinator Colin Gray

at 01252 616183 or colin@fleetpondsociety.co.uk

or

Task Leader David Buckler

at 01252 521282 or david.buckler@dsl.pipex.com

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 22,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 5 fully loaded ships.

In 2010, there were 86 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 217 posts. There were 212 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 60mb. That’s about 4 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was July 6th with 176 views. The most popular post that day was Keep An Eye Out For Different Types of Bees!.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were fleetpond.fccs.org.uk, android-vs-ipad.co.cc, mail.live.com, ealouse.wordpress.com, and mail.yahoo.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for brimstone butterfly, bees, fleet pond, types of bees, and grass snake.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Keep An Eye Out For Different Types of Bees! November 2008
2 comments

Butterfly Of The Month: April – The Brimstone March 2009
6 comments

Fishing At Fleet Pond October 2008
4 comments

Ranger’s Notebook – Winter Conservation Work Draws To An End February 2009
4 comments

Flocks of Siskins and Redpolls December 2008
3 comments

For information:

Fleet Pond welcomes responsible dog owners and their dogs.  We hope you will continue to enjoy the nature reserve and its wildlife.

Sadly there is a minority who seem unwilling to accept that a dog can be a serious threat to the wildlife on a nature reserve and who will allow their pet to chase or harass ducks, swans and the deer.  Others fail to remove dog mess or leave it lying about in plastic bags.  The latter can be worse than not bagging it as someone else has to remove it.

If you should witness irresponsible behaviour by a dog owner, please report this to Hart District Council’s Dog Warden Service.  Try to make a note of the breed of dog and a description of the owner.

The Dog Warden Service contact details are as follows:

Monday – Friday

0830-1630 hours (during office hours)

1700-0100 hours (Out of Hours) – collection of stray dogs

The Dog Warden administration telephone number is 01252 774421

Weekends and Public Holidays

0900-0100 hours (Out of Hours) – collection of stray dogs

If you are reporting a stray dog outside of office hours please call 0845 677 0678

Dangerous or Aggressive Dogs:

Should you have concerns or a complaint regarding a dangerous dog, or if you have been harmed by a dog call the police; if your dog has been attacked by another dog, report the incident to the Council’s Dog Warden.

The web link to the Hart Dog Warden service is here.