New pond
With water comes life or Uisge na beatha in Gaelic. Soggy, boggy land and ponds of various depths provide vital breeding grounds for insects and aquatic forms of life. We created our first pond near the roadside 8 years ago to increase diversity and create new habitat. We currently are spotting frogs, toads, newts but we want to encourage much more.
Already we are noticing the increase in plants and insects which include butterflies (orange tip, ringlet, meadow brown, peacock) and damselflies as vegetation (nettle, rush, flag iris and creeping thistle) around the pond diversifies.
A site was levelled on the west side of the Lower Field (3 acres) for an outdoor riding arena in 2011 but abandoned before completion. It is a flat/level area of approximately 50m x 25m established through ‘cut & fill’ of the original slope, which has a subsoil surface and is predominantly grassed over. Since 2011 Alder trees have self-seeded at the base of the slope on the hill side of the flat area and whilst these show evidence of grazing from deer, they also provide a welcome new habitat for birds and insects. Broom, showing some signs of grazing, is also trying to re-establish here along with common spotted orchid, butterwort and ragged robin.
The levelled site is now the location for a second wildlife pond to attract birds and insects and increase diversity of this area. The pond creation includes the planting of native emergent, marginal and
submerged pong plants.
We plan to place a hide between pond and woods in order to
monitor and enjoy the wildlife that returns.
