Damselfly larvae, spider and leaf cutter bee nest

I decided to clear out some of the pond weed as the pond has become quite overgrown. It won't be long before the damselflies emerge and lay their eggs on the weed and I will have to leave it.

To be as sure as possible that I don't accidentally take out any pond creatures in the weed, I remove small pieces of weed at a time and put them into an old washing up bowl. I check them for creatures, usually they swim off when put in the bowl. Afterwards I put the weed in a bucket of water so I can check it again later.


In the process I found a large number of damselfly larvae which I carefully returned to the pond.


I notice one red damselfly in the garden, possibly from my pond.

I also cleaned out the old window boxes to plant the remaining violas to brighten the place up.

This beautiful spider was living in a web tunnel behind one of the window boxes. I am sure I have seen it before but can't place the species at the moment.

While replacing some of the old soil in the window box I found an old leaf cutter bees nest. The bees make a nest tunnel and then cut leaves to create individual cells.

We have leaf cutter bees in our garden every year and they are fascinating to watch.