The Bat Tunnel

A dirty polluting pipe flowing into a new pond?

No, its a bat tunnel at water level leading to a pond-side summer roost, the breeze block construction below.

Pond-side summer bat roost

This is part of an innovative pond creation project taking place in Suffolk which I visited yesterday.

Nature’s Calendar shows frogs starting to spawn

Spring is springing already in the south-west of England and south-west Wales as the first frog spawn appears.

Keep up to date with how things are progressing with Nature’s Calendar run by the Woodland Trust and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

Big Pond Thaw

Thanks to everyone who’s submitting Big Pond Thaw forms at the moment.

I’d been expecting a lull in returns, but as they’re still coming in pretty frequently we will hold on a bit longer before reporting back.

The Big Pond Dip 2009 results will be following soon after that – but as you can probably imagine things have been hectic and our timetable for reporting back has been a bit disrupted.

British Ecological Society web site highlights ponds

The authoritative BES policy website picked up the ponds report last week.

And the BES also noted another issue that we were keen to link to the generally poor quality of ponds.

And that is the fact that 75% of rivers and streams in England and Wales will fail new standards which define the range of plants, fish, invertebrates and algae you should find in clean and unpolluted rivers.

The Environment Agency says:

“Using the new classification system [for a thing called the Water Framework Directive], results for assessed rivers in England and Wales show that for overall ecological classification 26% of rivers are good or better, 60% are moderate, 12% are poor and 2% are bad.”

It’s worth noting that the new system is a five point scale with water bodies assessed as: bad, poor, moderate, good or high. In theory, all waters should be at ‘good’ or ‘high’ status. Most are not and, at present, virtually no rivers in England and Wales are ‘high’ status.

More information on the Environment Agency website.

Jeremy Biggs on solving the problems facing our ponds

Alongside Jeremy Cooke’s report we also filmed a short piece on the pollution problems facing ponds, and how we can make a real difference with new pond creation.

View it here.

For more information look at Pond Conservation’s Million Ponds Project.

And another reason why frogs hang around in ponds overwinter…

Read my colleague Becca Cleaver’s comments on the reasons why amorous male frogs brave the cold weather in your pond….

See the comment ‘Becca on More frog info’.

The BBC’s Jeremy Cooke reports on the state of Britain’s ponds

See Jeremy Cooke’s report on the publication of the Countryside Survey Pond Report 2007.

The report was written jointly by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) and Pond Conservation.

The Countryside Survey is jointly funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Natural Environment Research Council and other statutory bodies.

Analysis of the pond data was jointly funded by Pond Conservation and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

Eight out of 10 UK ponds in a ‘terrible state’, says study

In the Guardian:

Wildlife-rich, clean ponds have become a rarity as a result of pollution from farmland, roads and villages.

Watch BBC Breakfast tomorrow to see more.

We’ll post more details of the report, by Pond Conservation and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, funded by Defra, tomorrow.

More frog info

Hi Everyone

Just a very quick reply to Heather – why do frogs hang about in ponds in the cold?

The answer is that this is a safe and warm place (relative to the air) which, as long as the water remains oxygenated, is a good place to overwinter.

And frogs have adaptations to this environment – being underwater in winter – though obviously they can stay on land too.

But when the oxygen runs out, underwater is fairly quickly a deadly place for frogs – they can survive probably a maximum of 7 days without oxygen.

So the question is – what type of ponds are most likely to become de-oygenated.

And that’s what we’re working on now – so will keep you posted with results from the Big Pond Thaw and other information.

Jeremy