Toad today!

I found this toad in my garage today. It seemed to be trapped in there so I brought it out and it walked off happily into the undergrowth near the pond.


Maybe it has friends in the garden. I hope so. I have an excess of slugs and snails which could do with some natural control.

Today at the pond

 I noticed a blue tailed damselfly, ischnura elegans, at the pond today. That's only the second one I've seen. This one is a female of the violet form.



There were also two more exuviae from common darters - but I have not seen any of the darters yet this year!

Darters have bred!

Last August I recorded common darters laying eggs in my front pond and posted a picture. The original large picture is here.







Today I found three exuviae of common darters on the leaves of my water iris. So the pond has successfully bred common darters along with a host of azure damsels and large red damsels.