Today I am jubilant.
jubilant: feeling or expressing great happiness and triumph.
My aim of a wildlife garden which would attract pondlife including damselflies and dragonflies is really coming together. Since we created the pond I have seen dragons and damsels in the garden, but this is the first year that I have seen damsels actually living in my pond and emerging from it. It’s brilliant! And it’s not even just the damsels that have me feeling jubilant – there are frogs, newts, pondskaters, water crickets, diving beetles, as well as spiders, hoverflies, bees, butterflies, birds etc. etc. I haven’t been for a walk this weekend because it kept raining, but in between showers I was able to pop out to the garden and enjoy nature right there on my doorstep. And then this afternoon it brightened up and I just didn’t want to leave 🙂
Today I was lucky enough to see 2 more damsels emerging.
This one must have very recently emerged from its larval skin as its wings were still all folded tight:
This one, nearby, hadn’t yet burst out of its larval skin:
Due to a sudden downpour I missed the 2nd one bursting out, but I got another photo of it a little while later (with umbrella in tow):
The first damsel had since thinned out considerably and had fully expanded its wings, but was still looking rather ghostly:
Here’s some more of damsel 1’s development (I think damsel 1 is a female Azure Damselfly):
Here’s some more of damsel 2’s development (damsel 2 is a Large Red Damselfly):
Not only did I get to witness more emergence, but Bruce also spotted a larva still in the pond, so I managed to get some shots of that too! It was kindly sitting on a Frogbit leaf 🙂
As this post is already rather large, I’ll save the rest of my jubilation for another post! 🙂
Inspired by the Weekly Photo Challenge: Jubilant
Wonderful photos! How fantastic to have all this in your own garden. 🙂
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Wonderful! He does look jubilant. 🙂
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Your photos are so rare ! I can’t get used of them. Please, don’t stop ! 🙂
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So glad it has all worked out as you hoped. Lovely to have all that in your garden.
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Incredible. Great shots.
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This is a glorious post Suzy! It’s so easy to feel your joy and the passion that you have for the pond and it’s bounty. Thirty some years ago I dug our first garden pond when we lived in Germany… and I’ve had ponds ever since. Always hauling my plants out of ditches and marshes and marvelling as new life keeps arriving. I’ve never had fish as I’ve worried that they would take too much of a toll on the local life. It’s quite wonderful to help create and be an integral part of a thriving ecosystem… right in your own backyard!
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Excellent! 🙂
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You must be so happy to have created a wildlife haven. So much to enjoy 🙂
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