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December 2017
News
Bradley Stoke in Bloom report for November By Sara Messenger of Bradley Stoke in Bloom (BSiB)
November workday at The Common East
Although the pond on The Common East has been looking very tired of late, newts were found during a licensed survey so we have had to resist going in to give it a tidy up until the beginning of the ‘closed season’, which is generally November to February. Although they have not been seen in the last few months, we still wanted to do everything possible to enhance their wellbeing and their habitat. Newts hibernate when the temperate drops below 6°C, although they will come out to forage if the weather is warm enough, as do frogs and toads. Generally, male frogs hibernate at the bottom of the pond, and the females under rocks and vegetation, for reasons
that may not be suitable to print in a family paper! Our November workday saw us clearing as much green duck weed from the surface as we could. This is a long and tedious task as the sticklebacks like to hide just under the weed, which meant that we needed to check each net-full to ensure they could be safely returned to the pond. We also found many water snails, ramshorn snails and, surprisingly, fresh water mussels. We also cleared the edge and the boys made a valiant effort to remove silt from the pond. We’d like to offer our apologies to their neighbours, who may have seen them dumping their very dirty and smelly clothes before they were allowed inside their back doors!
BSiB volunteers on their November workday at The Common East
The decoy ducks Barry & Kate have returned. We will remove them again in the spring if our resident pair Maurice & Millicent return, although we have been told that Millicent has been seen without her mate, so we shall just have to wait and see. We have decided to not return the butterfly boxes that were thrown in the pond yet, and we are looking at
how we can repair the bench, but we have topped up the insect hotel and have introduced a few new residents, including ‘Jerry’ the stag beetle. We put some wire across the front but have made sure the sides were left open so that the hedgehog (if she’s still there) can still get in and out easily, as well as the squirrel who seems to be using it as a winter store.
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