A group of volunteers who call themselves the Hedgehogs spent the weekend of 22nd & 23rd September removing a vast amount of alder and sallow scrub from one of Fleet Pond’s large reedbeds (the Northern or Hemelite Reedbed adjacent to the railway station car park).
The Hedgehogs started their regular round of conservation project work while students at Southampton University. They have kept together as a team since those early days and now visit a number of wildlife sites and nature reserves during the year. They are a happy and hard working group of enthusiasts. Their shared love of the work they do can be shown by the fact that two pairs are now married and a third pair are engaged. At Fleet Pond they used to be labelled the Mudlarks for their love of ending each day as wet and muddy as possible.
Colin Gray, Chairman of Fleet Pond Society, said: “We always welcome the Hedgehogs to Fleet Pond. Their skills and enthusiasm mean we can put them to work in some of the more difficult and challenging areas and be sure that a good and effective job will be done”.
Previous posts on the Hedgehogs at Fleet Pond can be found here (2011) and here (2009).