it's been over a year now....towards the end of last summer the pond had two resident frogs, and then one much bigger resident frog. by late last fall my 55 gallon drum pond had an established residece of water fleas and other barely visible critters late in may my son and I found a quivering puddle of dying wood frog tadpoles in a just dried up vernal pool. we scooped them up and dumped them in the pond there appear to be larval insects down there now, at least ones big enough to kill and gut a tadpole, and now there is a graduating class of a few wood frogs each day (they come up and then split asap, perhaps because a big healthy water snake has also taken up lodging right next to the pond) all in all, it has come a long way in a year, and the bog garden i built last summer a few feet away is now an impenetrable mat of ferns and other plants will post photos

Yes, I know how the dragonflies and their larvae like to eat mosquitoes and am glad she laid her eggs. I figured with about 13 goldfish and the moving water, I wouldn't be likely to have mosquitoes in the pond. I have not seen them anymore now that we have our pond than before we we installed it. I'm generally careful about emptying my birdbath to keep that from becoming a breeding ground too. I really did enjoy watching her lay her eggs. That was a first for me to see this. She was flicking drops of water at least 12 inches across the surface. The whole time she was doing this, another dragonfly - assuming this was the male sat on one of my plants and watched. This one was bright blue - just beautiful! I have also seen a vibrant red dragonfly buzzing around too, but the blue one has claimed his territory.

Kewl! Cypress Clubtail? I really need to brush up on my dragonfly stuff. I get so wrapped up in so many other things when they're not around, by the time they come back, I've forgotten more than I ever knew. 8-> Been there, done that, re the contortion act to get a decent shot. My family just pretends they don't know me. *heh* ICA, Sophie ^i^

Happy to hear you have been keeping yourself busy, DBD! :0) Wish I had the time to stalk dragonflies with my camera. Busy, busy, busy.........