We spent the time skimming off as much of the duckweed that was blanketing the surface of the pond as possible using pole nets. The idea is to let light filter down to the bottom of the pond to encourage the more delicate pondweeds. In the process, we had a good opportunity to check the status of some of the pond life that we don’t usually get to see, as the underwater plants are rather few beside the boardwalk – most likely because the continual sampling keeps them from growing much. But the rest of the pond is another story.

There were at least two kinds of damselfly nymph, possibly bluetail and azure damselflies, judging by a pondside look at the book without a handlens. The little camera in close-up mode is just about capable of resolving detail at this scale, given good light. The various damselfly nymphs have differently-shaped tail appendages, which the book says are diagnostic.

We also caught a newt or two. We carefully put all the minibeasts and interesting bits of pondweed back in the water.