Preparing the New Bog Habitat

Yesterday in the Nature Area we started the process of converting the smaller part of the pond lying to the north of the footbridge into a Bog Habitat. The first stage is to carefully remove all the aquatic plants (mostly Starwort) and invertebrates that have colonised the shallow water since February this year and transfer them to the larger main pond before partially infilling the hollow with soil and replanting with species that like waterlogged ground.

We used a pond net to scoop up the submerged plants and tipped the bag contents into buckets for transfer to their new home. We were totally amazed at the number of creatures that were living in the vegetation We knew they were there but not how many and what types. There were diving beetles, dragonfly nymphs, great water boatmen, water hog lice, and surprisingly, freshwater shrimps which were probably introduced with the river water that was used to fill the pond.

We will be returning in a few days to repeat the process to ensure that we have removed and saved as many creatures as possible before taking further actions to create the Bog Habitat.

Here are some photos taken by Sue Frazer and some by myself, both members of the workgroup together with Carol Matthews and Peter Mauger.