Christmas Day pond survey

Caddis flies have now colonised the pond

Starting a new tradition, here’s the result of my Christmas Day garden pond survey.

Best of all, there was a nice surprise: the first caddis fly larvae, quite tiny and probably just hatched in the last few weeks, starting to grow as the spring approaches.

Also….
- two different kinds of lesser water boatmen
- two species of backswimmers: common and spotted
- three different kinds of adult diving beetles, and lots of larvae
- large red damselfly larvae
- a broad-bodied chaser larva
- loads and loads of pond olive mayfly larvae
- whirlpool ram’s-horn snails and dwarf pond snails
and
- pond skaters, just a couple.

All have come entirely under their own steam, including the snails. More and more the pond is beginning to look like a perfectly normal ‘wild’ pond.

Most of the animals were in the grassy margins, except for the broad-bodied chaser larva which was in the middle, at the bottom.