Thursday 24 April 2014

Fleet Pond Bird Ringing

Bird ringer Martin Cooper and his team were at Fleet Pond SSSI on Easter Monday morning. They managed to tidy up all of the net rides and get all of the CES (constant effort site) nets up without too many problems. They caught 10 birds, of which 7 were birds that had not been ringed before.

They ringed 3 Reed Bunting, 1 Whitethroat, 1 Wren, 1 Chaffinch and 1 Dunnock and 3 re-traps including a Reed Warbler which has made it to sub-Saharan Africa and back again!

Great results!

The Hazeley Heath Girls!

Ranger Rachel caught the cattle on Hazeley Heath having a lie in early this morning.

Fenella is the white Irish Moiled leader.
Paula is the largest Belted Galloway
Cumbria Girl is the middle one and
Isobella is the smallest one!

Tuesday 22 April 2014

Easter Tree Trail at Fleet Pond

Hart District Councils Countryside Service held a fun and educational Easter event this weekend. A large number of families turned out on Friday and Saturday to earn their Easter Eggs by completing a challenging tree trail around Fleet Pond Local Nature Reserve.

Thanks to rangers Leigh, Adam and Rachel and the Fleet Pond Society for all their help running this event. There were only a few Easter Eggs left that we will save for our next conservation volunteer day!

The visiting public also enjoyed a wonderful view through binoculars of the Herons nesting on one of the islands that can be seen from the picnic area.


Wednesday 16 April 2014

Another Great Fleet Pond Society Volunteer Day!

A fun day was had by all on Sunday with so many hard working volunteers. We had a nice mix of jobs to do and so split up into teams.

We collected brash along the footpaths, patched up fences, repaired eroding banks, and painted part of the new viewing point. Of course we had a bonfire to get rid of all the excess!

A lovely sunny day and a great turn out made it a real success. Thank you to all!

Ranger Rach.





Grazing on Hazeley Heath

Four lovely cows can now be seen grazing on Hazeley Heath for the fifth and final year of the Hazeley Heath Grazing Trial. One Irish Moiled ,who is the older lead cow, and three young Belted Galloway's.

Thank you to Miller's Ark for delivering them to us!



Please follow the Countryside Code in this area and keep your dogs under close control, making sure all gates are shut behind you when entering the grazing enclosure.

The cattle will be with us until the end of September hopefully doing a great job of munching the competitive grasses and opening up opportunities for some of the rare heathland flora to grow whilst poaching the ground for some wet loving species. This then provides a great habitat for lots of specialist invertebrates.

Friday 4 April 2014

Fleet Pond Memorial Benches

We need your help!

The Countryside Service are trying to track down the sponsors of any of the memorial benches around the pond, especially in the Hemelite Bay area.

If you are a sponsor, or you know anyone who is, please contact us by emailing countryside@hart.gov.uk or calling 01252 623443.

Thank you