Guide to Spring Garden Dragonflies
We are right at the beginning of the dragonfly season and spring species are starting to emerge. We have created a quick guide to dragonflies you can see on the wing in April and May. Have a go at spotting them in your garden or while you’re out doing your daily exercise. Report a…
Pond Ponderings: Parc y Llyn pond, Aberystwyth
An introduction to a community pond in Wales, by Meg Kirby: “The Parc y Llyn pond is situated in a rough grassland meadow between a housing estate and retail shopping centre on one side and the river Rheidol on the other side. The area is open to the public. It is County Council owned…
Pond Ponderings – Battling algae in a new pond by Pamela Styles
Last time I wrote about my new pond (A Welsh Garden Pond For Wildlife and Wellbeing), I was blissfully unaware of the invasion of algae that was soon to come! The plants died back in the winter, and several of them died completely, possibly not responding well to living in containers, or to me not…
New ‘super’ National Nature Reserve is super news for Southern Damselflies
Hartland Moor, a key site for Southern Damselflies in Dorset, is set to become part of the new Purbeck Heaths National Nature Reserve. The small, delicate Southern Damselfly (Coenagrion mercuriale) is the UK’s only legally protected species of Damselfly. The larvae of this species are only found in shallow unpolluted alkaline streams, a habitat that…
Pond Ponderings – From A Small Urban Pond in King’s Lynn, by Elizabeth Fairweather
2020 really is shaping up to be the Year of the Dragonfly, as we have got another Pond Ponderings writer to introduce you to. Elizabeth Fairweather introduces us to her small pond in an urban garden in King’s Lynn, Norfolk: “When I first started to recall details of our pond I was amazed to…
Pond Ponderings – A Welsh garden pond for wildlife and wellbeing, by Pamela Styles
Introducing our newest Pond Ponderings writer, Pamela Styles: “I’d dreamed of my own pond ever since I was in primary school. My best friend had a pond in her back garden and I used to love going round there and trying to catch newts. When I began volunteering for The Wildlife Trusts in 2008,…
Pond Ponderings – Story of a Small Pond So Far, by Dan Brawn
Introducing another new writer, Dan Brawn based in Felixstowe: “In June 2017, my wife and I moved to Felixstowe and acquired a narrow elongated garden of the type traditional for a Victorian terrace house. Building work needed on the old neglected and abused Victorian house took priority, then in March 2018, I built…
Pond Ponderings: From a Redesigned Mature Pond in Suburban Suffolk!
We are so excited to introduce you to another Pond Ponderings writer – David Schenck from Suffolk. Over to David: “I have loved nature for as long as I can remember, certainly before I was old enough to go to school. I used to spend hours peering into our garden pond in the 1960’s…
Pond Ponderings: Avopond, the first summer! A tale from suburban York.
Mollie Thomas bring us an update from her unintentionally Avocado shaped pond in suburban York: Avopond has progressed quickly through the warmer months. Shortly after the last update we bought some pond plants from our local garden centre, most of which were native species. These have flourished throughout the summer, putting on great displays…
Dragonfly Champion Ruary on the trail of a ‘Flying Fossil’: the New Zealand Bush Giant!
Our very own Dragonfly Champion Ruary Mackenzie Dodds and his wife Kari de Koenigswarter have been searching through the wilds of New Zealand to study the mysterious Bush Giant Dragonfly! The pair had to install large security cameras into wild landscapes in order to film the burrow dwelling larvae of the Bush Giant. They also…