What’s in your pond?
As the weather warms up, and the frogs are spawning, Pond Conservation has launched its 2011 Big Pond Dip. Now entering its third year, the survey has provided a variety of important new information about garden ponds – keep an eye on their website as they’ll be reporting some of the new results soon.
To take part just use the online form on their website to enter the data from your pond – this is then automatically added to their national database.
Take part in the Big Pond Dip now!
Results of the Big Pond Thaw 2011
Pond Conservation has also released the results of the Big Pond Thaw 2011.
Nearly a 1000 people sent in information over the two winters of 2009/10 and 2010/11 which has given valuable insights into the effects of the cold weather on our ponds.
The survey shows a clear north–south divide, with ponds in the north suffering higher frog deaths than those in the south – a reflection of the longer ice and snow cover on northern ponds.
From all the reports, there wasn’t much evidence that making holes in the ice, brushing away snow, or running a pump made any difference to amphibian survival. Worryingly, mortalities were higher in typical garden pond-sized ponds than in bigger ponds.
You can download a summary of the results and a full technical report from the website.