Pills, Pools and Marshes - Gower - page 244

FIG 138. Decoy Wood Pond, as shown on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map of 1884. (West Glamorgan
Archive Service)
Duckdecoysweretypicallysetinwoodlandandconsistofapond,usually0.5to1.5hectares,shelving
at the sides and surrounded by trees and shrubs. The ditches, called 'pipes', were usually 50 to 70 metres
long, 5 to 8 metres wide at their mouth and tapering off at the far end. The water was around 0.5 metres
deep at the mouth and a few centimetres at the ends. The pipes were screened in and covered with netting
on iron hoops and had small channels or feeders to keep the water moving. The success of the system de-
pended on the mobbing behaviour of ducks when they are confronted by a predator. On even small decoy
ponds there could be several thousand ducks resting during the day, and by using a trained dog, which the
duckswillfollow,the'decoyman'wasabletoenticethemintoapipeandcatchthembydrivingtheminto
a net at the end. The system allowed several catches a day to be made. In the close season the ponds were
used by the birds to breed and collect on.
Plants on the boggy site of the pond include yellow iris (Fig. 139), common marsh bedstraw, marsh
thistle Cirsium palustre , water mint, purple loosestrife Lythrum salicaria , water forget-me-not Myosotis
scorpioides and mullein Verbascum spp. The area is important for dragonflies and damselflies and sev-
enteen different species have been recorded including emperor dragonfly, golden-ringed dragonfly Cord-
ulegaster boltonii (Fig. 140), southern hawker Aeshna cynea and yellow-winged darter Sympetrum flave-
olum , an infrequent immigrant to Britain. Damselflies include emerald damselfly Lestes sponsa , large red
damselfly and azure damselfly.