New Species for My Garden List

To ensure that I spent at least some time clearing the area round my pond today rather than photographing the inhabitants, I locked my camera in a cupboard till after lunch. Even visits from Common Darter and Southern Migrant Hawkers to the garden were ignored while I tackled the excess vegetation around the pond. In the afternoon, I settled down for a couple of hours recording the life in the pond now much easier to access. No Dragons but there was a Willow Emerald Damselfly, lots of Wasps and Bees plus Pond Skaters and Trypoxylon attenuatum Slender Wood-bore Wasp. The Wasps were mainly Europaean Paper Wasps Polistes dominicus - a first record for my garden and obviously breeding somewhere nearby from the amount of activity.

The first pond skater image rivals any Shakespearean tragedy with the Pond skater standing over and about to stab its victim  (a Pond Olive).

Riverfly Survey in Toft

Toft Bourn Brook Group is carrying out surveys of the invertebrate species in the Brook according to the Riverfly rules and regulations for acquiring the samples and then counting the species found in the water. The species that are monitored include Mayflies, Olives, Stoneflies, Shrimps and  Caddis flies. Timed samples are taken and then examined for the Groups shown on the circular chart and the numbers of individuals counted. We also found very young Loach and American Crayfish plus Beetles, various Midge larvae and Pond Skaters etc

Close Encounters by the Garden Pond

Sitting quietly in the shade by my pond cooling down after attacking a few over enthusiastic brambles etc, I was visited by this very beautiful male Southern Hawker. He spent a long while going round the edges of the pond and also inspecting me. After a while he flew away and a female arrived again flying right up to me but this time dropping down onto the moss at my feet and started laying. They were never there together so did he communicate with the female as to a good area for laying and how? (Four other pond inhabitants include the Pirate Water spider Pirata piraticus)