June 2021
The pond is looking great at the moment
To view a report of year two of the pond regeneration project, please click the link below
Towan Pond Year Two Report – June 2021
April 2021
15th The first new arrival of the year, thank you Clive. So cute… the Moorlet, not Clive!!
Thank you to Clive for these photos of a Willow Warbler and a Male Blackcap both seen on April 4th.
March 2021
Spring is on the horizon and work is underway preparing for the year ahead.
September 2020
26th September
A beautiful Grey Wagtail was seen by Clive today.
August 2020
15th August
Clive was lucky (and very patient) to photograph a Brown Argus and Small Copper on ragwort. The fly species is unidentified at the moment!
12th August
Small Tortoiseshell
10th August
Speckled Wood
9th August
Comma
July 2020
30th July
Brown Argus
28th July
Small Copper Common Blue
20th – Blue-tailed Damselfly photographed today by Clive.
4th July – Release of Painted Lady butterflies
The Painted Lady is a migrant and will range widely in search of food. Increased planting of butterfly friendly plants is proposed.
3rd July. Not the best of days weather wise but the butterflies were not deterred. Thanks to Clive for the photos.
Large Skipper
June 2020
19th June. Fantastic to see families and Children coming to the pond and enjoying it.
13th June Moorhen chick pics from Clive
Unusually on the reeds
Look at the size of those feet!
9th June – Moorhen update – it looks like there are at least four broods of Moorhens
6th June – Paul reported two adult and five juvenile Moorhens on the pond today – great news.
4th June – Moorhen and ‘Moorhenlet’, thank you Clive.
May 2020
A big thank you to John Gregory for his donation of £250 to Towan Pond, as you can see from the photos below for this month, the work which donations like this enable is already paying dividends. All we need now is some rain so the grass and wild flower seeds can germinate!
More from Clive – thank you. A Male Large White butterfly (note the dark edges to the wings), Moorhen chick and a Blue Damselfly
Great news – The Blue Tits have successfully hatched a brood
The bare ground between the pond and the road is to be sown with grass seed this weekend and the area rolled. Wild flower seeds are to be sown on the right hand side.
A funding bid has been prepared and is ready to be submitted in the Autumn – Thank you to Ann Blantern for her time and expertise in completing the paperwork.
09.05.20
Broad-bellied Chaser
May Day, and a bit strange for anyone with a Padstow connection. Clive has come up trumps as usual (he’s half Padstonian!!) with a photo of a Bluebell…oh … and a Holly Blue. The Hawthorn is in full bloom.
April 2020
29.04.20
Another species of butterfly for the list, a Wall Brown – thank you Clive.
22.04.20
From Clive today, a Holly Blue, the first of our blue butterflies – beautiful, look at the spots on the underwing and a Green-veined white.
20.04.20
It was lovely to see families at the pond this afternoon enjoying the latest, small brood of ducklings – only two.
Butterflies are also starting to appear with Orange tip, Speckled Wood and Large White seen today. Clive heard a Tawny Owl calling this morning and the Flag Iris are beginning to flower. Thank you again to Clive for the photos.
17.04.20
Potentially a new sighting of another eight ducklings today, plus our first Willow Warbler – thank you Clive.
15.04.20 – Natural history in the raw at our pond. Yesterday, Nova and Tommy found a duckling in their garden which they captured and took back to the pond. Unfortunately there was no sight of the parent (s), however they were found to have relocated to the pond at Higher Harlyn. The intention was to recapture the lone duckling and reunite it but, sadly, Nova and Tommy were unable to find it.
But, it’s not all bad, Clive saw another brood – the Magnificent Seven today.
More news (13.04.20) Clive saw a Mallard with 14/15 ducklings.
Fantastic news, today, 12.04.20 a Blue Tit has been seen using one of our new nest boxes – Paul is hard at work constructing more!! Thank you to Clive for the photo.
Despite the current lockdown, spring is underway as demonstrated by this Chiffchaff carrying food. Seen by Clive Thomas.
Clive also saw a Pied Flycatcher on 8th April- stunning
February 2020
Our pond is coming on by the day now and lots of native plants are emerging. The ducks and moorhen are enjoying the extra space! The area of the pond we can now see after clearing the overgrowth is just under a quarter of an acre! Who would have believed that before we started our work.
Barrie has done a great job clearing away all the overgrowth and let some much needed light in. We are now working on the area behind the seat and building up the bank a bit with logs to make it safer.
We are waiting now for some drier weather for the surrounds to be tidied up ready for sowing grass etc. Next job is to get some bird nesting boxes made to catch spring!
Throughout all the clearing work we are doing, we are mindful to keep a careful balance between leaving enough habitat for all the dragonflies, invertebrates, butterflies, birds etc and making the pond an attractive place to visit.
Hopefully, when we have established good disability access, we will have lots of visitors who will enjoy sitting on one of the seats and watching the wildlife!
December 2019
The conifer tree adjacent to the road at the Constantine Bay end of the pond succumbed to storm Atyiah. The opportunity to clear some more of the overgrowth will be taken during removal of the fallen tree.
NOVEMBER 2019
Amazing progress!
Mark Bennett, assisted by Roger Carhart and Al cleared most of the overgrowth prior to completing the first dredge of weed and reedmace. The pond has not been completely cleared, this will allow ‘inhabitants’ to relocate before a second dredge towards the end of 2020.
The area looks a bit of a mess at the moment because the ground is so soft. When it has dried out a bit, Mark will grade the area with his digger and it will be reseeded.
During this initial work Mrs Frances Bennett’s memorial seat was discovered amongst the overgrown bushes.
Funding
Mark, Roger and Al have very generously given their time free of charge during this initial stage, however funding is required and is being sought. A fantastic donation of £1000 towards the project has been received from Mrs Ewart on behalf of “The Keith Ewart Trust’ and there are plans to launch an appeal after Christmas.
What else is planned?
- Some more cutting back of bushes is required to open up habitat at the ends of the pond
- Bird nesting boxes
- Bug hotel
- Log pile
- Compost heap
- Corrugated iron (To encourage hibernating grass snakes)
- Butterfly attracting plants – including stinging nettles, alexanders, Padstow pride, fireweed etc.
- Establish a variety of habitats both within and around the periphery of the pond. E.g. marshy area, long grass area, wild flower area.
OCTOBER 2019
No one passing through Towan recently can have failed to notice the work being carried out to the pond. Over the years the pond had become choked with non-native invasive pondweeds and reed mace and the area surrounding the pond had become overgrown, invading parts of the pond decreasing its size considerably.
Paul Bourdeaux attended the October meeting of the Parish Council and put forward a three year plan to restore and enhance the pond area together with proposals for future maintenance.
Paul’s vision is to “provide the Parish with a great natural resource enhancing one of the last remaining natural areas close to the village. It will provide the school with an opportunity to enhance and develop the wider curriculum by introducing children to the important concepts of interdependence, life cycle, and conservation.”
His proposals were fully supported by the Parish Council.