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Latest news:
🐸 Bishop's Pond, Fordingbridge
🌿 🐞 The next working session is on $[hdcolor $\brown$\$]Saturday 15th August$[/hdcolor$] from $[hdcolor $\brown$\$]2 pm to 4 pm$[/hdcolor$] 🦋 🌿
We meet to carry out conservation work at Bishop's Pond three times per month, on a Monday, a Saturday and a Sunday as listed below. All sessions start at 2 p.m. and last two hours. Sometimes a session is cancelled at short notice if the weather conditions or forecast are unsuitable. The traffic light on the left indicates whether the next session will go ahead – $[hdcolor $\green$\$]green$[/hdcolor$] means OK (unless the forecast changes), $[hdcolor $\orange$\$]amber$[/hdcolor$] means we're considering cancellation, and $[hdcolor $\red$\$]red$[/hdcolor$] means the session has been cancelled.
Everyone — including you — is very welcome to come along to help us (no skills are required), or just to find out what we do and have a look round to see how the conservation work at the site is progressing.
** August **
Saturday 15th
Sunday 23rd
** September **
Monday 7th
Saturday 19th
Sunday 27th
** October **
Monday 5th
Saturday 17th
Sunday 25th
You can find us:
- from Normandy Way: enter Cottage Mews (the pond is then on the left, opposite no. 1 Cottage Mews on the right; there is parking in front of the long wall ahead of you) and go through the gate in the hedge on the left, between the street lamp and the car ports outside no. 12, or
- from Green Lane (on foot or by bike; no access by car): follow the gravel track which branches off just west of the bridge over Sweatford's Water, go through the gate into Cottage Mews and then through the gate in the hedge on the right, after the car ports outside no. 12 and before the street lamp.
If you use your phone or sat-nav to find us, the postcode is SP6 1RJ. If you like What3Words, go to ///fingernails.paving.roughest (which is also a reminder to wear gloves and stout shoes!)
We are required to keep the gate into the Pond area locked for safety reasons, except during working sessions.
News
04 Mar 2024: Spring colours
Although we did not have a full working session on 4th March, a couple of us had a look around the site before the rain began. The snowdrops are going to seed but the wild daffodils are making a splendid display, although some unknown culprit has been chewing many of the trumpets. Lungwort (Pulmonaria) is in flower, ready to supply nectar to feed the queen bumblebees when they emerge from their winter quarters. Many other species of plants are showing signs of growth, promising more colour later in Spring.
Some unexpected splashes of colour right now were provided by several clumps of the Scarlet Elf-cup fungus (Sarcoscypha coccinea) on dead branches lying on the ground among the ivy.
05 Feb 2024: Dead hedge
At the previous meeting on the 28th January, we coppiced some of the hazel bushes to reduce excess crowding and shading of the woodland floor, to encourage more growth of woodland flowers such as bluebells, wood anemones, celandines, wild arum, etc. Today we used some of the cut hazel branches and twigs to build a “dead hedge”. This used the stouter hazel poles, cut to length and sharpened at one end, hammered into the ground as uprights to form an enclosure about three metres long by 0.5 metres wide.
28 Jan 2024: Spring bulbs
It was nice to see snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) in flower in the woodland area alongside Normandy Way. These were originally planted three or four years ago, and are doing well. An adjacent garden has a spectacular display of them. Wild daffodils (Narcissus pseudonarcissus) were also planted a few years ago and are now in leaf with some flower buds starting to appear. The leaf shoots of Wild Arum (Lords-and-Ladies, Cuckoo Pint, Arum maculatum) and English Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) are poking up through the leaf litter. The Wild Garlic (Ramsons, Allium ursinum) has not yet shown any signs of growth.
20 Jan 2024: Hibernating shield bugs
There are not many insects to see at this time of year, but a young visitor spotted a Hawthorn Shield-bug (Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale) hibernating inside a rolled-up oak leaf.
10 Jul 2023: Roe Deer
Another surprise was a Roe Deer spotted on 10th July 2023 (and again on 24th September). Not a good photo, but proof that they visit the pond, in addition to the evidence of chewed bluebell leaves, droppings, and “roe rings” – “During courtship, when the males chase the females, they often flatten the underbrush, leaving behind areas of the forest in the shape of a circle or figure eight called 'roe rings'. These tend to be 1-3m in diameter.” [https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/2020/07/roe-deer-shenanigans-at-the-falls-of-clyde/]
Further information
- Here is a booklet by Graham Long with details of the history from medieval times as well as recent activities at the pond
- Bishop's Pond is a Site of Interest for Nature Conservation (SINC). See Status of Bishop's Pond for more details.
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- Newspaper and magazine articles:
- Built a hibernaculum! (from Ringwood and Fordingbridge News, issue 843, 19 October 2022, page 16)
- Fordingbridge Focus Magazine, Sept/Oct 2022, p.34.
- Bishop's Pond full from end to end and is bursting with life (from Ringwood and Fordingbridge News, 17 March 2021, page 6)
- Plans to transform Bishop's Pond: Salisbury Journal, 18 November 2017
- Formation of the current group: Salisbury Journal, 4 August 2009, including a photo with the late Rev. Graham Long and Peter Tullett, founders of the group