First Swallows of the year seen on the way home last night driving through Roborough Downs, 3 in total, which cheered me up nearly as much as the fact it was a Friday evening meaning no work for 2 days!
Rebuilt the drystone wall and tidied up the trees and bushes on top of it which form our back hedge today. Also replaced a couple of plants choked by the everpresent Ivy we can never seem to get on top of. Still the Wrens love to hide in it so it's not all bad.
Got rid of all the muck on the ponds as well and bought some more pebbles to tidy up the edges and hide the liner which keeps making an appearance. Had a dip and there are a few Southern Hawkers looking like this will be their year for taking flight. Last year was our best year with a total of 17 Hawkers emergening, 14 of which were successful. I supplied most of our friend's kids with Exuvia which was very popular with the kids but not their Mums.
Only one Damsel last year, but the pond is very popular with Newts and I suspect a combination of the Newts and the Southern Hawkers exacted a heavy toll on the Damsel Larva. i expect this year will be the same.
Looking forward to a spell of decent weather to justify getting the Macro out again and hopefully get a few decent pictures. There will be local competion this year as my brother, having moved back to the South West is in the course of building a pond which could be used as an olympic swimming venue. Expect an outbreak of Pond Envy to break out shortly in the Plymouth area.
No comments:
Post a Comment