Frog Spawn
/It’s the first day of Spring, and I’m delighted to find some frog spawn in my garden pond. I was a bit late digging it out last year, but this (and some dragonflies, later in the year, hopefully) was exactly what I was hoping for.
Pond Visitors
/These are two insects that are found close to water, attracted to my new pond. Footballer hoverfly, so named due to its stripey football-kit colours lays its eggs in shallow pond margins. Large Red Damselfly is rarely found away from standing water, unlike some other damselflies. The latter, a new species for my garden, is one of the earliest dragonflies on the wing in Spring.
Thirsty Birds
/Setting up a trail-cam near the pond got a few nice pictures of birds coming in for a drink. I was hoping to film a hedgehog as I hadn’t seen ours yet this year, and I did get one shot but not nearby the camera - so that’s good news. This is one of our blackbirds and a house sparrow; both are nesting nearby.
Common Toad
/Nice to find this common toad; which are often around in the garden, but not so much this year. He/she goes well with the common frogs that we've had around the pond - the adult one is now joined by some of this year's froglets, who are keeping a low profile under the rocks surrounding the pond basin.
A Nice Clean Pond
/I've got two large terracotta basins that provide permanent water in the garden. Both have rocks, some duckweed, irises and bulrushes, and both had tadpoles. Otherwise though, the wildlife coming to these ponds has been a little disappointing: only a few hoverflies. While the baby frogs continue to grow in one basin, they completely disappeared from the other - not sure what happened, whether it was predation (e.g. by blackbirds) or disease. Anyhow as the water was looking a bit dirty I took the opportunity to change it, and it was gratifying to see an adult frog cooling off in there the very next day. Hoping for some dragonflies, pond skater, etc. to move in next.
