I saw my first Hawthorn fly today, just the one, old dangly legs getting beaten up by the gusty wind. Has anyone actually had much luck with them as a fly pattern? I'm not convinced trout seek them out ..read more

These creatures never cease to amaze me with the intricacies of the shells they build around themselves. I've seen photos of this species but never saw one in real life until it appeared in a sweep meant for ( non existent) sticklebacks at the weekend. Strong resemblance to an Alder cone, nearly missed it ..read more

Here in West Yorkshire on the more urban stretches of the larger rivers there's an inherent lack of stonefly. My local is a bit of an anomaly with surprisingly hard water, due to limestone geology- it naturally doesn't support stoneflies well, but the pollution it receives really doesn't help. The next major river is quite soft and peaty in comparison, and does have stoneflies but I've only ever seen small 'needle' type stoneflies. I've been fishing a few small streams last year, and a... Stoneflies ..read more

Got a fairly large fibreglass pond free from Gumtree complete with three holes in it, it's 2m long , 1.5m wide and .6m deep. I repaired those and set about fitting it on a rocky slope at the back of the cottage about ten days ago, the weather has been a total bustard. After bedding it in in a ton of sand ( no back-fill) the sodding thing was still leaking but we carried on with the installation, Mme. Bach doing an excellent job on the surrounding wall... Build it and they will come ..read more

Rescued a bumble bee earlier this week, I saw him on a dahlia, obviously unhappy and battered by the elements, hardly moving. I took a picture of it and forgot about it but surprisingly he was still there the next day so I thought a little TLC wouldn't go amiss. Plonked it in a large dry plastic container and put a dab of honey at one end and some sugar water at the other, an hour later it had eaten both offerings so I put some more honey in... Bees ..read more

HI at the moment most of us by the water willl still be seeing Cinnamon sedge ( Llmnephyllis lunatus) fluttering by the banksides. But there will also be another sedge that will be around for the next month or two. It is darker red/ chestnut coloured and quite hairy . I dont know of a common name Im afraid its latin is Chaetopteryx Vollosa, its smaller than the Cinnamon sedge, around 10mm to the 15mm of the bigger. It doesn't fly terribly well as stays in the water side foliage reluctant... caddis help ..read more

Its not Gammarus is it? Found it crawling around in some weed I dragged off the bottom ..read more

On the edge of the water trough today, emerged during shed clearout ..read more

Can anyone identify this for me? It definitely looks like a species of Stonefly to me, but I've never seen one on this particular Hampshire stillwater before. It's approximate length, minus antennae is about 10mm ..read more

Spied this in my daughter’s garden and grandson took the pic for me, I’ve not seen one before. B ..read more