Pond clearing at Dunham Massey on Sunday 25th September 2022

Six of us meet up with rangers Nat and Abbey at Dunham on a lovely autumn morning.  We processed down the new path to island pool.  Abbey, a former MNTV member, then gave us the team talk.  The task was to make a clear channel through the reeds for the drainage water from the park to flow through the pond and round the island.  If the water can’t flow freely it backs up and makes the rest of the deer park muddy.  The vegetation was to be laid out on the grassy bank to dry and be used as fertiliser.  This also allows the animals in the vegetation to return to the pond.

Some of the group waded through the bag of MNTV waders to find the right size.  Neil had repaired one pair and was so sure of his repair that he opted to wear them.

Another group had started the work earlier in the week, clearing around the entry pipe to the pond.  The reeds formed a good mat to walk on and we were warned not to go into the mud in the centre which was more like quicksand.  We took spades and willow sticks just in case.  We raked/dug out the reeds working from the centre out and placing the wet vegetation on the bank.  It looks mucky, but as it was flowing water there wasn’t an unpleasant smell.

Before we had our morning break Nat was called off to deal with an incident with a deer.  Some people had ignored all the signs saying do not get too close to the deer and the deer objected.  No lasting harm was done to people or deer but Nat not only missed morning break but lunch as well as she dealt with the incident and filled in lots of paperwork.  Luckily we had Abbey to guide and entertain us.

We first met Abbey as a volunteer with MNTV.  She told us about all the great experience she had gained working at Dunham and how she hoped to be staying on for another six months.  We had plenty of cake for morning break and lunch.  Thanks to  Abbey for the extra goodies.

We found evidence of wildlife in the pond:

We could also hear the calls of parakeets around the park.  At one point they dive bombed a heron.  The parakeets are quite territorial and eat bats so not so good for the native wildlife.  The passing humans were quite interested in what we were doing as well.

After we finished Nat returned just in time to take a group photo ... and eat some flapjacks.

You can see the progress we had made, the water level had gone down because we had improved the flow of the water.  We walked back to the cars and washed off the mud at the tap in the stable yard.

Jenny