Pond dipping

Ponds provide an interesting window into the natural world and its processes. Its surprising how quickly wildlife finds a new pond. Working with other volunteers this summer we put in a new pond at a school in Sandwich. When we came back a week after filling the pond there were already water boatmen, diving beetles, and powder blue broad-bodied chasers were patrolling the edges with the hornet-coloured females laying eggs into the water.

Pond dipping is an even better way to see what lurks underneath and spring/summer is the best time to check out what's in your pond before animals leave or lay dormant in the winter.

Looking at my pond this summer I've observed daphnia wheel around the pond edges and mayflies, identified by their 3 feathery tails and gills along their body, grazing the algae. With the help of a magnifying glass you can spot the aptly (and rather cool) named cyclops, a small arthropod maybe wearing their eggs as what looks like a large pair of bloomers. Waterbeetles are a little illusive but occasionally come up to the surface to grab a bubble of air before heading back into the depths.

Mayfly nymph

Water beetles

Damselfly nymph

The hot sunny weather brings honeybees and wasps to drink around the flag iris and the occasional frog to cool in the water. Small flies, able to walk on the water's tension, engage in some interesting behaviours. I've seen them following and displaying their wings at other flies as well as battling it out in a wrestle match on the water's surface.

I've managed to watch a couple of newly emerged damselfly adults as they sit, for what seems a long and vulnerable time, drying and hardening their wings and body. I noticed dragonfly larvae for the first time last year and have been checking fairly regularly to see if they will emerge this year as they take 1-3 years. Their chunky appearance tells me they are either broad-bodied or four-spotted chasers and I was looking forward to seeing the adults. However, I missed one day checking and the next I saw a trio of exuvae on the flag iris; they had already gone..

Oh well maybe next year

Particularly of interest for me are the newts. Our pond is tiny but still seems to appeal to common and palmate newts. Males in their spotty breeding colours follow females and undulate their tails at them in courtship. Later on I saw their eggs attached to vegetation, followed by their feathery gilled larvae. Now they are almost ready to emerge, looking much bigger with fully developed legs but still with gills remaining. The colour and patterning surprised me, I was expecting them to look more dull, but this guy looked pretty attractive, maybe its in a stage of shedding its skin?

Top: male smooth newt, below: newt larvae at different stages

A pond is a fantastic way to have wildlife right on your doorstep as it provides a microhabitat inside your garden. If you are looking to create a wildlife pond make sure to to vegetate it with native oxygenators and marginal plants that allow nymphs to climb out. Avoid putting fish in as these will see everything else as a snack and is why amphibians use small temporary pools to breed in rather than rivers.