I spent the whole of yesterday writing outside in our garden for a new project and it’s amazing what you notice by doing this. A sparrow spent the whole day tweeting and flapping around me looking for aphids and other insects. It was wonderful and somewhat irritating at times when I was trying to concentrate but it’s impossible to be annoyed. A constant chirping told me it has a nest somewhere close with hungry beaks to feed.
I also spent some time, as I usually do, looking at the various insects and the diversity in our garden still amazes, it must have increased this year again. Normally I notice a large number of different species and yesterday I counted at least fifty species in just ten minutes, there must be thousands here.
At one point, when I was crouched looking into our ponds a rapid plasticky flapping appeared next to my head – a huge dragonfly jerking back and forth over the water like one of those windup elastic band toys. A shiny blue cigar shaped body and four clickety clack wings. It flew off as quickly as it appeared, my hope that it liked what it saw and will be back.
