The pond is entering a new phase. The fabulous Marsh Marigolds and Water Hyacinths are now past their best and the primulas and polyanthus have all died back. However, on the emergent front are the five flower spikes of Foxglove, and the water lilies have thrown many pads on to the surface of the pond but it will be some time before the flowers will appear.
The sunny weather is bringing out the hoverflies and there were three species today. The first two photos are of the very common (certainly around my pond anyway) Helophilus pendulus followed by a Myathropa florea and ending up with three shots of Eristalis tenax
A bit quiet on the bee front, but I did get this individual with a beautiful orangey thorax so typical of the Common Carder Bee, a new species for the garden.
Up to now the dragonflies have been dominated by good numbers of Large Red Damselflies which breed in the pond, but today saw the first appearance of the year of an Azure Damselfly. These will eventually build up in numbers and also lay their eggs in the pond.
The Large Red Damselfly larvae are emerging and hatching all the time. If you scan the iris stems you can find their cast-off outer skins (exuviae) where they have crawled up the stem, hauled themselves out of their skin, dried off and flown away.
As a result there are plenty of Large Reds around either singly, paired up and mating or egg-laying on the aquatic vegetation.
This Water Hyacinth obviously proved very popular.
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