Abbey Fishponds, Abingdon, Saturday June 17th 2023

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 This weeks' blog was written by Eleanor D 


Saturday saw us actually in Abingdon for a change, that is, at Abbey Fishponds. We had been left instructions by Earth Trust, who manage the site.

The morning began with some light rain, but this soon gave way to sunshine. There were several tasks. One was to scythe, rake and stack vegetation near the bridge. Another was to remove crassula from the pond, which Philip agreed to do, having been shown what crassula was. Some of us set off to hunt down Himalayan Balsam, but we only found a few plants. Maybe it hasn’t grown enough yet to be visible or maybe we did such a good job in previous years that we have eradicated it! There were also overhanging branches to be cut by the path through the reserve.

You can see a photo of mating dragonflies but the three in the sky are not large dragonflies but helicopters, perhaps on their way to Trooping the Colour! We also found a very small frog and a large toad, disturbed from their grassy residence.

We enjoyed our tea break in the sunshine, then set to work again. This time some of us went to clear branches and nettles growing over the foot/cycle path at the edge of the reserve.

By the end of the morning it was hot and humid and we were feeling quite tired as we made our way home.  

scything and raking



Robin getting the rich pickings after we have scythed and raked


congregating on the east path to tidy it up a bit



tea time


cutting back overhanging vegetation on the west side path




returning after cutting back down the west path

damsel flies

colour trouping helicopters

















































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