In the last couple of weeks we have had some great visitors to the perch:

Meanwhile, the frogspawn has started hatching into tadpoles.

When I was crouching down looking at it, I noticed something I thought was a newt right in the middle of the spawn and munching it:

However I then thought that, whatever it was, it definitely wasn’t a newt – the eyes and arm were all wrong. Then I realised that it was stuck – the jelly had closed behind it trapping it there – and so I carried out a rescue mission and discovered it was an Emperor dragonfly larva.

So that was returned back to the pond where it skulked off into the depths.

Over the last few nights there has been a tremendous amount of new bedding being dragged back to the badger sett. They continue to use the stacked reed pile that we had cleared from the pond last Autumn and so much has been carried back. Here is the young yearling badger on a couple of the many trips it made bringing ridiculous stuff back:

This badger continues to be so entertaining.

Last weekends bad weather is forgotten now and long may that continue so. I am looking forward to the birds recommencing nesting operations and here is a photo of a magpie gathering mud for its nest from the margins of the pond to get us going: