Strange pond creatures

After a night of torrential rain that left many local roads flooded, it was perhaps not a surprise to see some unusual creatures emerging from the pond today.

On this occasion, though, these were not some strange species of aquatic invertebrate or amphibian. No, they were a team of welly- & wader-wearing wardens and volunteers, wielding shovels, rakes and wheelbarrows!

The reason? The pond, which has for many years been a great place to watch water voles and dragonflies, as well providing hours of fun for pond-dipping families and school groups, had become seriously overgrown with reedmace, common reed and sedges. This elite squad of volunteers were enthusiastically removing much of this vegetation, restoring the pond to its former glory and improving opportunities to see water voles and grass snakes next spring.

They were rather a motley crew, though, as the work party included several of our volunteer guides, as well as two conservation interns, Tom and George, and one of our wardens, Paul. Despite getting thoroughly soaked and muddy, it looked like they were all having fun whilst undertaking this important conservation work, as you can see from these photos.

I'm looking forward to seeing how good the pond looks when I next walk that way.