Grass snake, watercolour

The pond continues to attract all sorts of creatures. Yesterday we spotted a young grass snake, resting in the weeds with just its nose breaking the water surface.

It swam effortlessly through the water, and you could see its black forked tongue tasting the air.

Pond skater, watercolour

Now that the pond has started to settle after all the clearance work, the wildlife has started to appear. Pond skaters are fascinating to watch, skimming across the water without breaking the surface film.

Mallard duckling, watercolour

We've recently cleared out the large natural pond at the bottom of the garden, removing lots of the rushes that had encroached on the water. Now that we've started to plant the banks with smaller marginal plants and added some oxygenating weed to the water, it's starting to look more natural again.

We must have done something right because last week a Mallard brought her twelve tiny ducklings to inspect our work. They spent about an hour swimming around and exploring the muddy banks before trotting away across the neighbouring field.