Summer colours

Red Admiral

Bumblebee

Water Mint and Purple Loosestrife

Peacock

Bee on Marigold

One of those Volucella hoverflies which seem to be in fashion these days

Gatekeeper

Waterlilies

Small Red-eyed Damselflies

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D + EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Biodiversity

More progress on the pond front. It's still amazingly clear, so it's easy to see what's going on under the water, even right at the bottom.

Pondskaters are still eating, mating, fighting and whizzing around

They've been joined by two Backswimmers, Notonecta glauca. These seem to perform a similar role to a spider on land, catching and eating things caught unawares. As well as swimming around just under the water's surface, they also dive after prey. Apparently they have a nasty bite if you handle them...

Loads of Lesser Water Boatmen have appeared sometime during the past few days. Confusingly, another name for the Backswimmer is Water Boatman, though the two species seem quite different.

The real Water Boatmen have a vegetarian diet and seem to spend a lot of time at the bottom of the pond, only coming to the surface for air, which they carry in the form of a bubble stuck to their rear end. They have 'oars' as well but are quite distinctive.

There are lots of beetles in the pond, some quite big, but not Great Diving Beetle size. I'm going to have to get a pond life book to work out what they all are. We've got a school of three Whirligig Beetles, too.

Two pairs of Common Darters were ovipositing (egg-laying) on Saturday, with other unpaired males bickering for control of the pond. No Broad-bodied Chaser this week

Most exciting (I think) was the discovery of a resident Smooth Newt this afternoon, followed rapidly by our first sighting of a Common Frog. It appeared on the side of one of the plant pots before hopping onto dry land and squeezing under the turf at the edge of the pond. I'll have to be careful when I'm walking around.

We've got amphibians!

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D + EF 300mm f/4L IS USM or Canon Powershot A640

Butterflies and moth

With the hot weather this weekend, I haven't been in the mood for much more than lounging around in the garden. It's been great. Butterflies have gathered in numbers on our 10-feet high Buddleia bush:

Peacock

Brimstone

Large White

Small Tortoiseshell

Gatekeeper

Meadow Brown

Large Skipper

Peacock and Comma

And then this creature turned up:

Hummingbird Hawkmoth!
I've been growing Valerian in preparation for attracting 'Hummers' but this one found the Buddleia perfectly adequate. It did some funny things: feeding happily one second, then whizzing off at rooftop-height over the wheat field, before appearing back on the flowers again within a few seconds

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D + EF 300mm f/4L IS USM or Canon Powershot A640

Oviposition

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Creepy-crawlies

Not sure what these bugs are, but they seem to like thistles

A Common Darter seems to be holding a territory not far from the pond

It managed to see off a [the?] Broad-bodied Chaser

The pond's looking pretty clear now, and the plants are helping it look more mature

Pondskaters now number 12+, and this is perhaps why...

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Waresley Wood

After doing the Breeding Bird Survey nearby, I fancied a return visit to Waresley Wood.

This is Brownes' Piece, along the entrance track. I had Marbled Whites in mind but none were on show in the strong breeze.

Inside the wood, Ringlets were numerous

Essex Skippers

hoverfly sp.

Comma

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D + EF 300mm f/4L IS USM or Canon Powershot A640

Beetle

I've been doing quite well for beetles in the garden over the past few days. This evening, I was lying on the lawn, peering into the depths of the pond and watching the Water Beetles and Pondskaters going about their business.

My arm was going a bit numb so I stood up, and noticed a beetle on the lawn, right next to where I'd been lying. It was a [the?] Lesser Stag Beetle, as seen on Thursday evening. It had been very lucky not to get squashed!


After taking some photos, I moved it to safety in one of the flowerbeds and it rambled off through the undergrowth. These seem to be very docile beetles - it didn't run away or mind having its picture taken.

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Gardens

Gatekeeper, my first of the year (sorry, I'm slow)

Lift-off for a bumblebee

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Emperor ovipositing

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Whodunnit?

I'm not sure what happened, but these are the remains of a Stock Dove.

There were several piles of feathers, starting near a bush and then moving out into the open as whatever it was worked its way through its meal. Finally, the legs and pelvis and the wings and sternum (click for slightly gruesome photo) of the dove were left in two separate portions, away from the feathers, and picked clean very neatly.

Anyone care to guess what did it? Bird or mammal? The motive is easier to work out...

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Battle for pond supremacy

The pond has excelled itself today (OK, I've only had it for two weeks).

I'd gone outside with the intention of photographing Meadow Browns on the lavender, but found a battle in progress:

Broad-bodied Chaser...

versus Four-spotted Chaser

I know which one's prettier, but neither seems to have won control of the pond so far. There was a lot of chasing (as you'd expect), clashing of wings and hovering over the pond.

They were joined by three Blue-tailed Damselflies

An ovipositing pair of Azure Damselflies

The number of Pondskaters has doubled... to four. And two of those were fighting (I think).

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM or Canon Powershot A640

Creepy-crawlies

A pretty lady Meadow Brown

A dull male Meadow Brown

Green-veined White

Something clever seems to have constructed a tent from leaves and silk. Spider expert Ian Dawson tells me it's 'a web of the Nursery Web Spider Pisaura mirabilis.

'She carries her eggsac around in her jaws until ready to hatch when she attaches the eggsac to some vegetation and spins a protective silken tent over it. She normally stands guard until the young spiderlings hatch. These stay within the protection of the tent for a few days until their first moult when they disperse.

'A widespread and common spider. You often see them basking in the sun on leaves low down in early summer.including in the Lodge main border.'

The aptly-named Large Black Slug

Fly inside Bindweed

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D + EF 300mm f/4L IS USM, or Canon Powershot A640

A stag in the garden

This magnificent beast was slowly crawling around on our wall the other evening. Thanks for spotting it, John!

Lesser Stag Beetles lay their eggs in and live in dead wood, so I think it had probably come from the garden next to ours, where there's plenty of that. I'm planning to build a woodpile near the pond which will hopefully attract beetles and other creepy-crawlies.

Speaking of the pond, it's now entered the green phase, where the nutrients that have ended up in the water (from soil, plants etc) have got going and algae has started to grow. With a bit of luck, it'll settle down soon. Not having fish should make it a bit easier to keep clear.

There are hundreds of little mosquito larvae wriggling around in the pond now. That's not so good for us, but great for the bats (pipistrelles?) that hunt over the garden after dark. Dragonflies also eat mosquitoes, both above and below the water.

I was sitting by the pond this morning, eating my breakfast, when I heard and saw two Grey Wagtails fly over east. I've checked, and that's actually a garden tick. There isn't much running water nearby but they're not so fussy this time of year. Number 83 for the list.

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Terns and gulls

This evening I've been helping out with some of these cute little fellows

Common Tern chick

Mark is running a project to study the Common Terns at Broom gravel pits. Tonight he made the third visit of the spring to Cocks Island (the 'Pea' prefix has mysteriously fallen off the sign). The tern chicks were fitted with unique combinations of three colour-rings, so Mark will be able to monitor where individual birds end up. We also metal-ringed the Black-headed Gull chicks.

It almost looks like a tropical island...

After we'd finished with the gulls and terns, we tried for some roosting Sand Martins.

It all looked so promising, with hundreds of birds swirling around above the reeds. Eventually they swooped down. As we made our way through the vegetation to the two nets, we didn't know what we'd see - it could have been no birds, or nets full of birds.

It was the former. Never mind.

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Mosquito hawks and others

Four-spotted Chaser in poor repair

Male Banded Demoiselle, straying to The Lodge from the Ivel

Bees

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

On the line

I used to annoy my Mum by hanging bird feeders on the washing line at home, but here I don't mind if birds want to sit on the line.

Especially if they're Spotted Flycatchers

These young Swallows have been teetering on the skinny washing line this morning. There are swarms of youngsters about at the moment, so I think I might try to find a thicker line so they can perch in comfort...

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM + kitchen window

Pond's progress

The big hole in the garden has made progress since we filled it with water last Friday and it became a pond.

• The pondskater has been joined by another
• Water beetles have arrived, presumably on the wind
  
• Some other beetles have fallen in and been rescued by me
  
• Our local Goldfinches seem to love bathing in the shallow end
• Swallows have swooped over it
• Blue-tailed Damselflies have been seen nearby

The main event this week has been the installation of a load of plants that were donated by some of my kind colleagues - thankyou, Derek, Sarah and Susan. I've got a couple of water soldiers, lots of water mint, some water forget-me-not, some brooklime, some rushy things and other stuff which I can't remember the names of. Some ramshorn snails and lots of water lice hitched a ride with the plants.

Today, while I was fiddling around with bits of hessian, string, aquatic compost and pebbles, a female Broad-bodied Chaser arrived. She flew low over the water before carefully dabbing her rear end into the water and laying eggs. Result!

Now we just need to wait two or three years for dragonflies to emerge...

Poolside

With hot weather and little time to spare, the swimming pool at The Lodge is the place to be...

I love photographing Emperor dragonflies. Above: females ovipositing (egg-laying)

Males are much harder to get a shot of

Azure Damselflies

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Red-eyed Damselflies

Four-spotted Chaser

I was buzzed by another low-flying object, so they got their picture taken

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM