Day 358 - A mayfly emerges

I was in the garden with my pa for a little while this evening - he was doing things around the pond, adding some more plants and making it even more wildlife friendly, and I was mooching about and noticing nature!

I saw my first shieldbug of the year, a common green

I noticed the hawthorn in the hedge if starting to flower now. I love the garden hedge on this side of the garden - there are all sorts of species in it, it's a nice mixed hedge. The other side is just boring, bright green laurel which I don't like so much, though the birds and the insects do!

I also spotted a couple of bees on the cornflowers (these are not the same ones that appeared on Friday, they are on the other side of the house) and got a two in one photo when they landed on the same flower.

I was watching the life in the pond - pond skaters, beetles, water boatmen and the tadpoles, then a movement caught my eye just near where I was standing. I thought it was a tadpole moving amongst the plants at the edge at first, then it climbed out of the water and up a stalk. It was a mayfly.

I've never seen one actually emerge from the water before. I got myself down on the ground (eventually!) and watched it for ages. It sat there drying off, wings vibrating, for a little while, then climbed up to the top of the stalk...

before taking it's first flight! Just a few inches across to the plantain, where it stayed for a while.