The weather was so beautiful yesterday that I had to be in the garden, despite a rotten cough and sore throat. I sat on the grass in the sun and happily watched the pond.
Brindled Hoverflies are already returning to stake their claim (they lay their eggs in the water), early bees stop for a drink and all sorts of little bugs and beetles roam among the plants.
There are still plenty of fly larvae wriggling on the surface as an adult fly emerges, which never ceases to amaze me how ever many times I see it. Damselfly, dragonfly and mayfly larvae are everywhere in the water and daphnia are increasingly abundant. The various plants are growing rapidly now too, so the pond is really starting to look good.
All this cheered me up no end, but none so much as spotting something larger just peeping out of the water on the far side of the pond. I admit, I audibly squeaked with excitement when I realised I was looking at a young frog.
Moments later I spotted a second. They were obviously young, being much smaller than an adult frog, and are almost certainly last year's babies. Very relaxed, they seemed quite happy to let me photograph them.
So now I know that both newts and frogs survived the cold and snowy winter successfully, probably in the log pile that borders the pond. I am thrilled about how successful setting up the pond has been. Full of clear, sweet smelling water and teeming with a huge variety of life, it doesn't look like it has only been there for 9 months. All the time, care and research I used to get it set up properly has obviously paid off!
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