Fleet Pond Autumn Bird Walk - A Great Success!!!

We had a great turn out on Saturday for a stroll around Fleet pond looking out for our feathered friends. We started off the walk with a ringing demonstration by our local bird ringer Gary Clewley, who explained why ringing is important and we got to see 2 great tits (Parus major) close up.
Next we wandered over to sandy bay looking at birds along the way, we had a great view of a kingfisher which perched on heron island and caught a fish for everyone to see.
We saw lots of birds along the way including treecreeper, nuthatch, teal, siskin and chiffchaffs. We finished off the walk by visiting Gary again and he had an adult male siskin which was great to see up close as not everyone had good views previously.
Siskin (photo below) are winter visitors and often seen on the alder catkins around the pond.

For more information about our future guided walks please visit our website
www.threesixfive.org.uk/countryside/guided-walks

Diggers Back at Fleet Pond

DIGGERS were craned into Fleet Pond on Saturday ready to begin the second phase of dredging in the Fleet Pond restoration project. They are now manoeuvring around the pond on pontoons –continuing to make it deeper and creating new islands using the resulting silt. By the end of this year a good dent should have been made into the estimated quarter of a million tonnes of silt that needs to be moved.

Last Spring the diggers removed silt and formed central islands thus creating a windbreak and reducing wave action across the lake. This stirs up the silt and makes the water murky so that plants cannot grow on the lake bed. The dredging stopped on April 1 to avoid disturbance to breeding birds. This autumn the dredgers will deepen areas around the edge of the lake while further islands will create calmer backwaters leading to areas of clear water in which plants can grow.

More dredging will be needed in future and Hart District Council is working hard to secure funding to continue the restoration. The project run by the council has raised funds through Natural England’s Higher Level Stewardship grant of £173,000 and Water Framework Directive (£142,000). There has also been Environment Agency WFD grants of £100,000 and a similar amount from developers’ contributions.

Fleet Pond Society, through its ‘Clearwater Campaign’, promotes community awareness of the situation at the pond and raises voluntary funding towards projects not contained in the main restoration project.

Cllr Sara Kinnell, Hart’s Cabinet Member for Leisure and Environmental Promotion, commented: “We’d like to thank everyone involved. This year is a giant step towards reaching our goals.”

For more information and updates on how the project is going and what species are visiting the islands see the Hart Countryside Blog – www.hartranger.blogspot.com, ring 01252 623443 or email countryside@hart.gov.uk

Let go on a Bat Hunt

We're going on a bat hunt in the countryside service ! Join us on a walk around Elvetham Heath on Saturday 1st September to see the exciting creatures that use the reserve after dark.   Lets see how many species of bats use the reserve and learn about their interesting lifestyles.  

There is also a bat walk at Fleet Pond on Friday 7th September.  Where hopefully we can see a different range of species that rely on the pond.  While we are walking we will also be on the look out for other exciting creatures that use the reserve such as moths and owls.

For more information about the walks please visit our website www.threesixfive.org.uk/countryside where you can also book our guided walks.  Spaces are limited so booking is essential so please either book online, phone us on 01252 623443 or email countyrside@hart.gov.uk to reserve your space.  Walks are charged at £2.50 per adult and £1.50 per child which goes towards management of the sites.

Hart Residents Enjoy Wild Night at Hazeley Heath

On Saturday 28th of July at Hazeley Heath the countryside rangers had great fun running the Life Nocturnal walk. Nineteen brave members of the public joined us to look for bats, Nightjars, owls and moths on this heathland nature reserve.

With help from some moth experts we ran a successful moth trap, capturing some interesting species.  We heard male and female Tawny Owl, but unfortunately didn’t hear any churring Nightjar. This cryptic nocturnal bird loves warm, still nights and it may have been a little chilly for them even though we have two breeding pairs in the southern section that we heard churring only the night before!

A brilliantly camouflaged Nightjar on Hazeley Heath - photo courtesy of James Herd

                                            

We did pick up some echolocating bats however using our bat detectors; hand held devises that pick up the high frequency calls of these flying mammals as they hunt for insects. Pipistrelle, Brown Long-eared and Noctule were all heard as we wondered through Hazeley Heath in the dark.

For more bat walks, as well as more Hart Countryside Services walks and events please go to www.threesixfive.org.uk/countryside/guided-walks.

Dartford Warbler @ Fleet Pond

While carrying out ringing at Fleet Pond today we caught a Juvenile (3J) Dartford Warbler in the North East Marsh.  Only 8 juvenile Dartford warblers were ringed last year in the country. It would be interesting to know where the nest was (Fleet Pond/Bramshill?)

This is probably the first Dartford Warbler to be recorded around Fleet Pond!
This small warbler is resident in the UK and has s declined in numbers quite a lot in the past few years due to the harsh winters . Its population crashed to only a few pairs in the 1960s. It will perch on top of a gorse stem to sing.  A ditinguishing feature is the bright red eye ring and it has a long tail.

Hi,  The Forester Moths are out on Odiham Common ! Friday afternoon I found five males in three of the southern meadows walking from the underpass to Colt Hill Wharf towards Bagwell lane, to the east of London road.

The Ragged Robin is very weather beaten but some moths were on it near Bagwell lane and others were on Knap weed, which is just coming into flower. If you haven't seen one before Forester moths are day flying metallic green / blue moths. This is only one of two sites in Hampshire where they occur and they are brilliant to look at.

The Wildflowers of Elvetham Heath

Ranger Duke is doing a wildflower walk around Elvetham Heath on Saturday 19th May.  Email countryside@hart.gov.uk or phone 01252 623443 to book your place.


If you'd like to join our mailing group and receive emails about events and guided walks happening in the Hart area Please email us on countryside@hart.gov.uk