Yesterday was the annual summer event at our local nature reserve. Mr C and I were helping to organise the pond dipping. A couple of years ago the whole mere at the site dried out. Since it re-filled with water we have seen evidence of several different bits of wildlife and thought that the summer event would be the ideal opportunity for us to see what was living under the surface and to teach some of the local children about what they can find living in the water.
Armed with some fishing nets we started to explore under the surface and we were quite amazed with what we found!
Not only did we manage to get some of the fish that we’re seen in there (three spined sticklebacks, just seen in the first picture) but we also got various water beetles and nymphs and also loads of tadpoles! We were all somewhat surprised to see tadpoles at this time of year as we had all expected them to be much earlier in the Spring. A quick search on the internet now hasn’t given me much more information about what time of year tadpoles are expected. We were also surprised at how large the tadpoles seemed and wondered if they may actually be toad tadpoles, rather than frog ones, but again a quick internet search hasn’t given me much more information. I may have to do some more reading before I know the answer to this one.
Also around the water were quite a few damselflies. I just managed to get a photo of one of them, but unfortunately I only had a small camera with me so it’s not as clear a photo as I would have liked.
Other activities during the day included a duck race along the River Ver that runs along side our site (think yellow plastic ducks that you might normally put in the bath!), storytelling, dragonfly making and a Splat a Rat competition. Great fun for all the kids.
In the evening the adults remained for a BBQ and drink around the campfire. The weather was incredibly kind for us (it’s rained the last two years!) and it was a super way to finish off the day. (Even clearing up the site this morning wasn’t too difficult with all the people that came down to help!)
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