Our One Year Pond Study Week 15: Comparing Ponds

Our own little pond this week
Our own little pond this week

Welcome to week 15 of our one year pond study.  For the rest of the posts in this series please see here.

This week we decided to make a visit to another local pond and do an informal comparison study.  In our village we have not one pond but many, many ponds.  Most of these are now managed, but none so much as our comparison ponds.  I remember these ponds from my youth (three in close proximity to each other) and decided to take the children up to compare them to our little pond.  I knew they had been ‘renovated’ but was very surprised by all I saw.  They were unrecognisable from the ponds in my memory.  Here is our summer comparison study:

This is a huge fishing pond, with two islands
This is a huge fishing pond, with two islands
This is small 'pond dipping' pond, with balconies for chidren to pond dip safely.
This is small ‘pond dipping’ pond, with balconies for children to pond dip safely.
There is also aboard nearby with information about wild life you might want to look out for whilst pond dipping
There is also a board nearby with information about wild life you might want to look out for whilst pond dipping
As we continued on our walk along the pond banks we found that the dipping pond is a very carefully managed over flow pond. You can see the over flow channel behind A4 and B2
As we continued on our walk along the pond banks we found that the dipping pond is a very carefully managed over flow pond. You can see the over flow channel behind A4 and B2
Here is the third pond, which is just meters away from the other ones. The children called this the lily pad pond!
Here is the third pond, which is just meters away from the other ones. The children called this the lily pad pond!

One thing we noticed immediately was the lack of bird wild life in the big fishing pond compared to our little pond.  It may have been due to it’s sheer size or the fact it was nesting time, but all was very quiet.  However the ones we did see were huge!

The big fat mallards
The big fat mallards

We noticed the water wasn’t as clear as our little pond:

This was the water surface of the pond dipping pond
This was the water surface of the pond dipping pond

We did see lots of nests and nesting birds which seemed to confirm that this was reason for a lack of birds on the pond:

Moor hen nest
Moor hen nest
Coot's nest
Coot’s nest
Another Coot and her nest
Another Coot and her nest

These were all seen in the fishing pond.  As we walked towards the Lily pad pond we came across this huge, hundreds of years old Oak tree:

If we study this pond next year, this will be our study tree. It is stunning!!
If we study this pond next year, this will be our study tree. It is a stunning old oak tree, now fenced off and protected.

As we journeyed around the corner we were in for a huge treat:

A coot and it's chick
A Coot and her chick
A mallard and her chicks
A mallard and her chicks
And a Moor hen pair and their chicks
And a Moor hen pair and their chicks

We noticed the lily pads gave the chick a great place to run, and also offered some protection as they grew in the middle of the pond:

Cute little Moor chick!
Cute little Moor chick!

It was good fun to visit another pond and compare it with ours.  These ponds were so much larger than our little pond that I imagine we would need to do another year-long pond study just to touch the surface of all it has to offer!

Science Sunday  Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

6 comments

  2. Fantastic photos of your visit. What a brilliant place for your pond studies – I also like the fact that they are well managed and the old oak tree is protected. Thanks for coming over and sharing your pond adventures with Country Kids.

    Reply

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