Today we officially launched our new and improved ponds! The afternoon was a celebration of pond life with activities including pond dipping, wildlife-themed arts and crafts and opportunities to discover some the wild residents of Mudchute’s ponds with our visitors.
Over the winter, we worked with Tower Hamlets and Froglife to restore and improve our ponds (see details here) and we’ve already noticed common frogs making the new and improved ponds a breeding site. Today’s pond dipping activities gave us a chance to look below the surface.
Using the new viewing platform as a base, pond dippers of all ages and experience levels took part in exploring pond life. We got a fantastic glimpse at many of our wild aquatic residents, which included tadpoles, water boatmen, young newts, caddisfly and damselfly larvae as well as lots of ramshorn snails and hoglice (an aquatic cousin of the familiar woodlouse).
We hope all our visitors enjoyed the day as much as we did and we look forward to watching our new ponds and their wild residents grow and mature! You can find more photos of the day’s activities below. Thank yo again to all who took part!
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- A fine day for launching our new ponds!
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- Dipping for pond life.
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- A young pond dipper under the expert guidance of Tower Hamlet biodiversity officer, John Archer.
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- One of the first tadpoles since the pond restoration project began!
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- Visitors enjoyed having go at pond dipping.
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- A water boatman found on the pond.
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- Eager young visitors helping to check the nets!
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- Ramshorn snails, hoglice and other invertebrates aplenty!
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- A young newt, born and bred here at Mudchute.
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- A young visitor shows off her frog!
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- Young pond enthusiasts get frogs painted on their hands.
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- Drawing and colouring some of our favourite reptiles and amphibians.
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