The wild life pond looks a picture just now. Today (June 4th) there are 18 water lily blooms to admire, while electric blue Damselflies flutter over them and Common Darter Dragonflies dash over them chasing midges. Considering that the pond was only filled at the end of June / beginning of July last year, the variety of dragon flies and the number of damselflies is amazing. Its easy to tell the difference between the two: damsels rest with their wings folded along their bodies, while dragons rest with their wings outstretched, like an aeroplane. They are all busy mating and laying eggs at the moment. The eggs will hatch into larvae or nymphs and spend the winter hunting in the bottom of the pond before crawling up a plant stem early next summer, shedding their skins, and turning into beautiful flying machines. Some of the larger dragonflies spend two or more years in the nymph stage and I think we must have bought some along with the water lily plants.

We were standing on the viewing platform, admiring the scene on a heavy overcast evening, just after 6 oclock, when a bat came out of the conifers, swooped down over the water just in front of us, caught an insect and flew back into the conifers again! I have never had such a clear view of a bat before. It was a medium brown colour, about the size of a robin with a very noticeable pair of ears. As David and I stood there in “did you see that” mode it flew out again and gave us an action replay. We waited for quite a while but it didnt give us a third view. We have kept our eyes open for it at that time ever since but we have only seen bats there at dusk or later and we have been quite unable to tell what sort of bat it was. The bats we see at dusk seem to have the flight of the usual bats in the garden, the pipistrelles, and its always too dark to see their ears. Was this something different, or just a really good view of an old friend? If any one has any bat knowledge I would love to hear from them.
Wendy Bathurst