Water and wetlands do not feature greatly at Ashridge, woodland and chalk downland being the habitats most people associate with the property. However, scattered throughout the woods and commons are a number of small man-made ponds. Many of these would have originally provided water for animals grazing on the common and some probably acted as boundary markers between different commons.
  Although most of these ponds are well shaded and full of dead leaves from the surrounding trees, they now provide an important habitat for a wealth of aquatic life. The Clinkmere Pond near the Visitor Centre is of course regularly used by school groups for pond-dipping.
 
 One of the most obvious signs of animal life in the ponds is the spawn of the Common Frog which appears every spring. Common Toads also breed in the ponds but they lay spawn in long strings under the water, quite unlike the more visible frog spawnAt least one pond on the Estate supports an introduced population of the Midwife Toad, a native of France and Spain. It gets its name from the fact that the males carry the eggs in strings wrapped around the hind legs.
 The other amphibians which use the ponds for breeding are the Newts. In fact, we have all three British species at Ashridge :- the Smooth, Palmate and the Great Crested which is very big and also rare and protected by law. The amphibians are preyed on by the Grass Snake, the only snake occurring at Ashridge.  
Molluscs living in the ponds include the pointed Pond Snail and the distinctive Ramshorn Snail which gets its name from its curled shell. The Pea Shell is a tiny species of freshwater mussel which burrows into the mud at the bottom of the ponds.
 You may be surprised to know that leaches live in our ponds. Most people have heard of the blood-sucking land leaches which occur in tropical rain forests but there are many species in aquatic habitats in Britain. Many of these do suck blood of aquatic animals like fish but some eat invertebrates.
Many species of water beetle live in the ponds, the largest of which is the Great Diving Beetle. The larva is a particularly fierce looking beast with large pincers which preys on tadpoles and small fish. Many creatures live on top of the surface film of still water.    Two species of bug, the Pond Skater and the Water Measurer spend their lives on top of the ponds preying on insects unfortunate enough to fall onto the water. The Water Scorpion is a large, fierce-looking water bug with front legs modified into pincers with which it catches its prey of tadpoles, fish and insects.
 Dragonflies and their smaller relatives the Damselflies are some of the most spectacular creatures associated with ponds. These creatures spend one or two years as nymphs in the water where they prey on other aquatic animal life. They then climb out of the water, the skin splits open and out comes the adult insect. As adults they live for just a week but are efficient predators feeding on smaller flying insects. The larger Hawker Dragonflies are particularly spectacular, being very strong and manoeuvrable fliers which hunt away from water along woodland rides, often preying on woodland butterflies.
 As well as the life which actually inhabits the ponds, animals like deer come to drink and a variety of birds are attracted. These have included Mallard, Mandarin Duck, Heron and Grey Wagtail.
In this short article, I have only mentioned a few of the creatures which inhabit our ponds. In fact, they are teeming with life and form an important component of the property.

Don Otter – Area Warden
Photos – Don Otter, Nigel Blake