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Much to my amazement, the pond is still producing dragonflies.  This particular Common Darter is new today, and stayed obligingly still while I got close enough with a macro lens to take its portrait.

We (well Cathy really) uses a small net to scoop out blanket weed and anything else that we don't want floating around in the pond.  She always empties it carefully on the edge of the pond so that any little creatures that get scooped up can find their way back into the water.  Earlier in the week I looked to see what there was and to my delight found lots of baby newts and yes, needless to say, common darter nymphs.  The pond life that does get scooped up in this way doesn't stay still needless to say, it wriggles its way back into the pond as quickly as possible.  But it might be possible to get a photo of it if I'm quick - a project for another day.

In other news Nikon returned my Z8 to me today by UPS with the potential lens mount and strap lock issues duly fixed.  The camera was away exactly 7 days, which is pretty good going I think. I was worried that it might take several weeks.  I'm pretty fortunate as the Z8 is my second camera body, so it wasn't too much of an inconvenience for me.  While the manufacturing flaws are irritating I do take my hat of to Nikon for owning up to the issue straight away and putting in place a pretty efficient remedial service.