The reserve is signposted east from The Slade (bottom of the dip) in Charlbury Grid ref: SP365195 www.panoramio.com/photo/25077314

About 60 people came to the opening of Porters Pond on Sunday afternoon 16 August. Dr Gaby Porter opened the pond in memory of her parents Don and Pamela Porter and then BBOWT provided refreshments and a lovely pond cake beautifully decorated with frogs and hedgehogs. The pond designer, Rod d'Ayala talked inspiringly about how important ponds are as a habitat for a wide range of wildlife and then did some pond dipping. Three different sorts of water beetles were found, together with pond skaters, leeches, wandering snails, and larvae of water boatmen and dragonflies. During the afternoon lots of Southern Hawker dragonflies kept flying low over the pond and the photo shows a female laying eggs in one of the rotten logs by the edge of the pond. This was a BBC Breathing Places event.

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BFNR sightings

20/08/09 - female (green) Southern Hawker dragonfly laying eggs on rotten wood
17/08/09 - male Yellowhammer drinking from the pond
10/08/09 - Great Diving Beetle
09/08/09 - 3 red (male) Ruddy Darter dragonflies
30/07/09 - green and blue (male) Southern Hawker dragonfly
30/07/09 - Bat at midday over the pond
04/07/09 - green and blue (male) Southern Hawker dragonfly
04/07/09 - pale blue (male) Broad-bodied chaser dragonfly
04/07/09 - blue (male) Azure damselfly
03/06/09 - 2 blue (male) Broad-bodied Chaser dragonflies

Butterflies seen this summer have been:
April: Orange Tip
June: Large Skipper, Speckled Wood, Ringlet, Orange Tip
July: Painted Lady, Large White, Wall Brown, Meadow Brown, Comma, Marbled White
August: Small Copper, Red Admiral, Common Blue, Peacock, Brimstone

Please contact me if you see anything interesting on the reserve.
Christine Elliott, Reserve Warden, 01608-811057

Please don't transfer anything into the pond from your own garden pond or elsewhere - the pond has already been populated with a wide range of plants from known sources and we want to observe what turns up naturally in the pond. It is also important to avoid diseases and alien plants and animals being introduced.

Porters Pond marks 20 years as a BBOWT nature reserve

Porters Pond was created at Blenheim Farm Nature Reserve in October 2008 to mark the 20th anniversary of the site as a BBOWT nature reserve. Don and Pamela Porter generously donated the field to BBOWT in 1987 when they moved from Blenheim Farmhouse in The Slade to their house in the Enstone Road; they wanted the site to be preserved for posterity and safe from being developed for housing. Don died in January 2007 and Pamela in April 2009 and the new pond is a fitting memorial to their love and enthusiasm for the natural environment.

Looking back at photos over the past 20 years shows how beneficial it is to plant native trees and shrubs such as hawthorn, guelder rose, hazel, spindle, wayfaring tree, and field maple. These native species grow really quickly and can be bought bare-rooted very cheaply. They now provide a substantial protective boundary to the site which is a woodland edge type of habitat providing homes for a wide diversity of wildlife.

Photos of left are from 1987 compared with how the site looks now

Local volunteers have worked on the grassland for the past 20 years to reduce the strength of the grass and increase the range of wildflowers growing there. We’ve done this by cutting the grass twice a year and raking it off so it doesn’t re-fertilise the soil as it rots down. We’ve also sown yellow rattle (3) which is an annual parasite that feeds on grass and weakens its growth so it doesn’t swamp the flowers. We’ve created bare patches (in places removing the topsoil) into which we’ve directly sown local wild flower seeds. Our efforts have been rewarded by a colourful display throughout the summer which includes cowslips, marjoram, scabious, wild carrot (1), hardheads (4), ladies bedstraw (2), and teasels which attract a host of butterflies feeding on the nectar.

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Look out in particular for Marbled Whites (5) from June to August. We’ve also had White-Letter Hairstreaks - as caterpillars these depend on the elm suckers that grow on the reserve and as butterflies they feed on nectar from the thistles and brambles - this butterfly dramatically declined in the 1970s at the time of the devastation of the elms by Dutch Elm Disease. Painted Lady (6) butterflies are annual migrants arriving from Africa/Arabia, they lay eggs on thistles which develop into butterflies in late summer, however, they cannot survive our winters and those that don't fly back south will die out. 2009 has been a "Painted Lady" year - following heavy rain in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, millions of these fast flying butterflies migrated north and arrived here at the end of May.

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The new shallow pond is fed by rainwater running off the grassland and is likely to dry out in dry summers. This is typical behaviour for many ponds and pond life has evolved to cope with it. The pond has been fenced off to protect its edges which have been planted up with native plants and seeds. Robins were the first birds seen enjoying it – these bold birds turned up immediately just like when you’re digging in the garden. This new damp habitat will increase the biodiversity of the reserve and the number and range of dragonflies and damselflies will increase. Almost straight away water boatmen and pond skaters (8) were seen - these are always early colonisers of new ponds. The large Southern Hawker dragonfly was also seen nearby (7).

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A few minutes pond dipping at the end of July found several tiny creatures: water boatman larva (9), cranefly larva (10), and the larva of the broad-bodied chaser dragonfly (11) which had been seen flying near the pond during June. Also ramshorn snails (12) and water slaters (13).

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Plants growing around the pond include Figwort (14) which has a browny-orange flower which is pollinated by wasps and the bright mauve Corncockle (15).

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If you want to create a pond in your own garden then look at the Pond Conservation website www.pondconservation.org.uk which has lots of good advice. If you'd like to find out more about your local Wildlife Trust then look at www.bbowt.org.uk