This pond lies a few minutes' walk from our house. It has a pcturesque backdrop of a weeping willow and is surrounded on all sides by vegetation except where the lane runs past it. People often drive their children to it so they can feed the ducks.
A notice on a power pole beside the pond tells a little of the story of its restoration by the local heritage society, the landowner and a local business.
Sadly, like so many similar projects, time has not been kind to it. There is a faint air of neglect about the place and the ducks have moved on, though....
....a pair of moorhens have managed to raise two broods of chicks this year.
The water the moorhen family swims in is grey-brown in colour and seems to be lacking in other forms of life - no plants grow in it, though flags manage to survive around its banks.
The reason may be that, a short distance upslope of the pond, the landowner has a large and growing manure heap which comes from a dairy herd. The pond is under the trees at left centre of this picture.
Dragonflies are a very good indicator of the health of water. Last year the pond supported a good variety of both dragon- and damselflies but this year there have been few. We observed a common darter pair in tandem trying to deposit eggs in the water, though at no point did they drop below six inches above it; and this male common hawker gave up his constant patrolling of the pond.
The pond appears to be another victim of intensive agriculture.
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