The Wildlife of Ice Age Ponds

Ice Age Ponds are now a wonderful place for wildlife. Walk through the rough grass and a small frog may jump out, or perhaps you’ll hear the warning chirp of a Moorhen hidden in the undergrowth. Watch the calming reflections of clouds and trees rippling in the water and peer curiously down into a fascinating underwater world where strange creatures lurk. 
Seasonal ponds that dry out in summer provide important fish-free breeding places for the Great Crested Newt and Common Frog. Spawn in these ponds has a much better chance of not being eaten and for the amphibian life cycle to be completed. 

Dragonflies and Damselflies

Dramatic and colourful, these beautiful insects can live as carnivorous larvae in ponds for many years before emerging as the dragonflies and damselflies we are familiar with.  Look out for the metallic green Emerald Damselfly with its pale, powder-blue eyes. 
 
 

Amphibians

Five of the six UK species of amphibians can be found in Herefordshire’s Ice Age Ponds including the  rare and protected Great Crested Newt as well as commoner species like frogs and toads, smooth newt and palmate newt.

Birds and mammals

Ponds provide food for a variety of birds and mammals. Herons will hunt fish and frogs and bats will eat the multitude of insects that emerge from the water.