Damselflies are there in winter too
Last year I surveyed the pond on Christmas Day.
This year it was frozen so it wasn’t until a day or two later (actually the 31st December) that the ice had melted enough around the edges for a bit of dipping.
The most abundant animals, like last year, were the Pond Olive mayflies.
I found a couple of Common Backswimmers (Notonecta glauca).
I managed to find one of my Broad-bodied Chaser larvae (there were 20 odd in September).
I found a few Large Red Damselfly larvae.
Two kinds of ram’s-horn snails: Whirlpool Ram’s-horn and Smooth Ram’s-horn (this one’s a bit of a speciality of new ponds).
I saw no adult beetles – but I couldn’t look in all the best places, the grassy edges, because they were still frozen, and I was trying not to disturb the pond too much because of the oxygen measurements. I did find larvae, so that ticked the beetles.
Best of all I found half a dozen or so small caddis.
So apart from pond skaters it was pretty much a full house.
The Big Pond Dip score was 52 so its an ‘excellent’ pond.
It’s frozen solid again now.
