Tag: pond

September 19th – After a languid Indian summer, the sudden dull, overcast weather was a shock, but other stuff was bothering me. The air quality seems lousy at the moment, and it was irritating my sinuses making me unusually reliant on decongestant. Visibility wasn’t great either, but the air wasn’t really damp. This is an odd season, to be sure.

The autumn is in full swing, and the colours turning from dusty, tired greens to oranges and golds. Around Clayhanger Common and the new pond, the beautiful, deciduous copses and thickets are a wonder to behold, yet I think few every really study them or note the diversity of species they contain.

If only for a bit more sun to make these colours sing!

September 14th – The boating lake at Chasewater has been drained for cleaning, and the old water spread on the west heath, by the railway. Odd to see this pool empty, but the feral white geese and opportunist wagtails didn’t seem to mind too much.

I noted they had warning signs out to avoid the area where the old water was spread, like it was suddenly a health hazard; whereas when it was in the pond, we were invited to sail toy boats and paddle canoes in it…

Let’s hope it’s kept a bit cleaner in future.

June 2nd – Coming home on a pleasant summer afternoon, I came around  the new pond then cut over Clayhanger Common. I don’t normally go that way, but it’s beautifully verdant at the moment, so it’s worth putting up with the anti-vehicle gates that are so irritating here. In the three decades since it was created, this place has matured beautifully, and it’s a real asset for the local area, and a testament to a period when local authorities were allowed space to take on large environmental projects – a period that has sadly now passed.

It does suffer a degree of antisocial behaviour, but is generally peaceful and well looked after. I know deer like to come around here, and was hoping to spot some but sadly, they were elsewhere today…

April 14th – Clayhanger Common is wonderful. On this sunny, spring afternoon, it was green, clean and beautiful. The meadow looked verdant, and the forget-me-nots, cowslips and dandelions were all well in flower. 

The new pond too – usually the last place to green-up in spring, is looking great, although the swans don’t seem to be nesting here this year yet.

There’s little here to indicate the polluted, barren wasteland this all once was. A fantastic thing.

March 16th – I was unhappy with yesterday’s frog pictures, so I thought I’d return today to Shire Oak Park and play around with the camera some more. The frog frenzy had calmed, now, and the frogs and toads that remained loafed on the surface croaking occasionally. I love these misunderstood creatures; they fascinate me. Their life is one of relative indolence; mating done for the year, they have the season ahead to eat, lounge around and prepare for hibernation. And avoid predators, or course.

I loved the little yearling on the twig, he was quite brave and didn’t hop away until I got very close.

March 15th – Not brilliant photos, as the light was bad and I’m still not down with the new camera… but hey, frog soup. Shire Oak Park, and the shallow pond in the north is one huge amphibian love-in. Another of spring’s triggers released, and the frogs and toads are out in abundance, obeying nature’s imperative.

Isn’t wildlife wonderful?

June 18th – A bit of a disaster, photographically. I forgot my trusty camera, and was reduced to my phone. I’ve never used the phone for close up stuff before, and took 20-0dd pictures of wildflowers that looked OK on the screen in sunlight, but turned out to be out of focus smudges of colour.

The only images any good were of the new pond in Clayhanger, and the remarkable meadow that surrounds it. Alive with buttercups, dandelions, vetches, trefoils, clover, and multiple species of grass. It’s buzzing with insects and small mammals, and really is a place to explore and take in with all the senses.

A beautiful thing, rendered rather flat by a poor camera. My apologies.

May 7th – The pools and ponds around Clayhanger and it’s commons are healthy again. They had been in a very poor state, particularly the one by the pedestrian bridge. It’s water level had been very low indeed since last summer. Since the recent rains, all have been topped up. It was typical rainy, dull and cold bank holiday weather when I came this way at lunchtime. On the new pool at Clayhanger, the waterfowl were enjoying the soft drizzle and honking loudly.

May 2nd – First of the year. These four healthy cygnets are with their mum near the central island on the new pond in Clayhanger, behind the big house. Safe from foxes and predators, they should be fine. The pair nested in the reeds near the island. Four isn’t a huge clutch, but it’s respectable. I was 30 metres away on the opposite side of the pool, with dad hissing at me from the other side of the reed bed. He wasn’t screwing around.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Swan up the canal at the back of Sadler Road was fast asleep on her nest, no sign of hatching there, yet…