The Nature Reserve, Rietberg fish ponds (approx 50 acres) lie on the outskirts of the small Town of Rietberg in the North East of Nord Rhein Westphalia (NRW), It straddles the Ems, the river that enters the North sea at Emden, when you see it here you would not believe that a couple of hundred kilometres’ further North some of the biggest sea going passenger liners in the world are launched. But here in Rietberg near to its start, it rises and drains it's waters from the sump lands just a little way East from the Nature Reserve in the Senne at Stükenbrock.
The Ems is a slow meandering river that twists and turns as it heads to the North Sea. Passing through Rheda- Wiedenbrück (notable in that is were I live), it springs in an area of heath and woodland , this is an area used by the British Military for mechanised vehicle training, including the Challenger mark2. It has a lot of larger wild game and of late the racoon (waschbär) has taken a liking to the area, along with red, roe and fallow deer. The Wild Boar are very much in evidence and are, like in other parts of Germany, becoming a nuisance as they take over areas in plague proportions.
The fish pond nature reserve are fed from the waters of the Ems that flow past them, the fish ponds are part of an old fortified schloss "Schloss Eden" (Gut Rietberg) now a stud farm and in private hands, which is not open to the public. The Ponds where cut out of the moor land shaft between 1900 and 1904, so are well settled with all manner of flora and fauna. There is a high viewing platform that offers quite a good view across the nearer ponds, but a lot of the area is not visible from here.
The rough meadows to the NE of the fish ponds and bisected by the small road (single file traffic with passing areas)An der Teichweisen are the grazing grounds for geese and ducks, you will often see the grey heron patrolling along the field drains and wet areas on the look out for frogs, small fish and other amphibians and small vertebrae’s, You will almost always see birds of pray patrolling the sky’s or sitting on a fence post, owls and will often glide gracefully by as they spy a fields mouse or vole that will be their lunch packet. There is also the odd curlew (Numenius arquata) that will pop it's head up out of the rough along with the myriad of lapwings (Vanellus vanellus)picking their way across the land.
I am looking forward to the Spring with the return of the migratory birds, there is a larger pond area, that I shall be visiting, this is getting even nearer to the source of the
