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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
03 Jul 2023: Pyramidal Orchid and Crab Spider
A surprise discovery in June was a Pyramidal Orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis), usually found in calcareous grassland. It will be interesting to see whether it survives in our woodland edge habitat.
23 Apr 2023: Palmate newts at Open Day
We held an open afternoon at Bishop's Pond on Sunday 23rd April from 2 to 4 pm. If you came to visit us, thank you. If you didn't, you missed a treat! Some areas of the woodland were carpeted in native English bluebells which were then coming into bloom, and other spring flowers could be seen including wood anemones, wild garlic (ramsons), lady's smock (cuckoo flower) and cowslips. Pond-dipping highlights included a trio of Palmate Newts, Britain's smallest species of amphibian, which are less widespread than the common (smooth) newt. I will add a species list to the web site so that we can keep a tally on what we've seen.
09 Aug 2022: Southern Hawker dragonfly
At the working session on Tuesday 9th August, we were privileged to be visited by a female Southern Hawker dragonfly (Aeshna cyanea). This is quite a common fairly large species, often seen around ponds in woodland clearings and gardens.
19 Oct 2021: Coronavirus update
Working sessions at the Pond have resumed. Two or three of us (usually including Jane, Sue and Richard) will be at the pond at the advertised times (listed below) to meet with other volunteers (socially distanced of course!)
We will observe sensible precautions:
- No sharing of tools
- Only one person to use the wheelbarrow, with gloves to be worn
- Hand sanitiser – if you have some please bring it with you
- Keep your distance from other people on site
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