This is my pond in January. I intend to post a picture each month to show it developing.

Garden nightmare!

Another garden spider hard at work remaking his web after the heavy rain had destroyed it.

New shieldbug

Found a Dock bug (coreus marginatus) on the hops.















Amazing how the angle of the light changes the look - this is the same individual.

Spider City

I have one hop plant in the garden and today I found all these spiders on it at once.

zebra spider (salticus scenicus)















Probably a garden spider (araneus diadematus)















Not sure about this one

Ladybird for lunch!

I thought this spider had an egg sac till I looked closely at the picture and realised it had caught a harlequin ladybird!

Common green shieldbug (palomena prasina)
Seen on a hop plant in a sunny position














This seems to be a 4th instar of the same. I thought it was a different insect until I started to research shield bugs.














Forest bug (pentatoma rufipes)
Seen by the shed at the bottom of the garden - very shady and overshadowed by trees.

Garden visitor

Wet day today. Spotted this visitor outside our patio doors. Not here directly because of the pond, but I'm expecting frog spawn next spring.
It is a common frog (rana temporaria) identified thanks to Froglife.
You can record sightings at Frogwatch.