Pond Dipping

The children from next door came over to visit in the afternoon. They are delightful little girls and always interested. They were asking about the pond so, it was down on our knees to look for life. The newts weren't going to hang around to be seen, although I know they're in there somewhere. As usual, no frogspawn in my little pond. The frogs are there as are the toads but, for some reason, they don't like to use it to breed in.

There's plenty other for the children to see. There is an abundance of water snails, water beetles, caddisfly larvae, and tiny leeches by the dozen. The latter are one of the rare creatures that make me cringe a bit. I pulled up a stem so the girls could smell the peppermint and found this little Nymph of a Common Blue Damselfly, Enallagma cyathigerum, hiding on the stalk.

Unlike most of the Dragonflies whose larvae can live for years in water before emerging, Damselflies have a life cycle which is normally just one year. Last years visitors have done their job. On closer inspection the pond is teaming with them. The wing buds are forming so they'll be ready to emerge in a month or so.

After the children left I decided to catch one up to photograph. Catching was easy but photographing it was a nightmare. It kept fleeing off to the underside of the leaf! A real time waster!