Animals and Insects at the Pond {Pond Study Week 8}

In week eight of our one year pond study we focused on the animals and insects to be found there:

Read More!  Introduction to our one year pond study

This week we were going to revisit our tree study.  I had lots of ideas and activities planned, but as we are finding out nature has a plan all of her own.  We are merely spectators to all her glory and that is just what we ended up doing this week – observing the wonder of Creation. 

We stood in awe.  Spring had sprung upon the pond, abounding with enthusiasm, displaying with flourish an abundance of new gifts especially for our delectation.  Please be patient with me.  There are many photos.  I hope you are as spell bound as we were.

Click here for our initial pond assessment

Animals and Insects at the Pond This Week

Ducks and Coots (of course)

The weather was glorious for our visit.  There were many familiar faces:

In week 5 we rescued an injured duck which you can check out here!

A Turtle?

We were quite excited to see a turtle! There is lore around this pond that it is full of turtles that the residents of village have as pets. They decide they don’t want them anymore. And under the dark of night, release them into the pond. Apparently, seeing a turtle in the village pond is not a good thing. Y’know, ecologically speaking. They tend not to be native and they eat all the fish.

Find Out More!  Read our thoughts on our investigation of pond pollution in week 2

We were peculiarly excited about finding one. However, my mother brought us straight back down to earth when we got home! Using a few chosen expletives, she went off on one about how terrible it is that people just release them into the pond. So, really, we had a free lesson on the hazards of foreign turtles in our British waterways!

Read more about pond ecosystems in our week 6 study

Alder Fly?

We had all just got over the excitement of the turtle when L10 shouted that I needed to take a photo of her trousers.  Eh?  It seemed an insect had landed on her and she wanted me to capture it on film.  Loving my camera more and more each week, I happily obliged:

When we returned home we attempted to identify the insect using this website.  The fly was very definitely an Alder Fly.  They say ‘Adult Alder Flies are blackish-brown, with dark, lacy wings which they fold in a tent-like manner along the length of their body. They are distinguished from stoneflies by the lack of any ‘tail’ bristles.’

Bees

As I was snapping away, movement in the water caught my eye.  I wasn’t sure what it was, until I zoomed in and captured this:

Again we went home and looked up images of bees mating and found some very similar looking pictures.  Note in our picture one of the bees is larger than the other; however, I’m really not sure it was big enough to be a queen bee.  But what would I know?

Frogs Spawn

No sooner had a captured them (doing whatever they were doing) I heard a yell from C10, she had found frogs spawn:

Then of course we had to find the frog:

No, not really!  We did find this frog but it was in our back garden a few days later.  It was too tempting not to include it.  I know I cheated.  But I cheated honestly.

Last weeks post complements this weeks nature study so well! Check out our spring pond water study, where we look at the critters found inside the water!

I hope you enjoyed our foray into the animals and insects at the pond this week. Next week, unless we are yet again blown away by something else amazing, we will be concentrating on our tree.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our nature studies!

Click here if you’d like to read a bit more about our initial tree study by the pond and here if you’d like to read more about the fauna we found at our pond in week 4