Not much doing

The Safari didn’t see the Peregrine on the tower this morning nor was there anything in R’ouzel Puddle.

An almost flat calm sea beckoned us to the seawall like a Siren of old. But good as the conditions were there was little to be found. A couple of Gannets and a few Sandwich Terns were all we could muster until we came across a Grey Seal bobbing quite close inshore. Five Shelducks going south was a bit of a surprise.

A group from a nearby school came to work in the morning to have a shuffy at the pond and terrestrial habitats. Keen and eager they were too leaving no stone or leaf unturned in their quest for those elusive mini-beasts.

They hoiked countless snails from the pond namely Greater Pond Snail, Common Ramshorn, Keeled Ramshorn and Wandering Snail along with a few front swimming Water Boatmen.

Interestingly there appeared to be a very small creature whizzing around in the water that we didn’t recognise and without our specs we weren’t likely to either. We got side-tracked by a question/ observation from one of the children and totally forgot about it so no photo was taken and only after we’d emptied all the trays did we realise what we’d just done...dohhh.
A Pond Skater skilfully avoided the nets like a Spanish midfielder avoids getting tackled.

Almost all the trays contained tiny 3-spined Stickleback fry indicating that the great Stickleback Hunt last Easter was totally unsuccessful! In fact the very last find they had in their nets was this male in his breeding finery...he’ll have to go...but not until the autumn.

There were a few damselfly nymphs, probably Blue Tailed Damselflies, were in the trays.

but we also noticed one had climbed up the side of the pond ready to transmogrify in to an adult.

We set up an alarm on the phone so as we could get a pic of it every hour or so as it transformed itself.

The land based gang had also had snails aplenty Garden Snails this time. A couple of bees were carefully potted. 

White Legged Snake Millipedes were abundant as usual and although only tiny when curled up were easily spotted and potted by the hawk-eyed throng.

Unfortunately the sun didn’t shine so there were no butterflies for them to get to grips with.

Where to next? Wonder how far along the damsel will be in the morning? Patch 2 could be flat again, either sea or sightings or both, or neither.

In the meantime let us know what's being netted in your outback.