Newts and nymphs

The little pond in our garden tends to dry up in hot weather and seeing all the rubber liner looks unsightly. We were also worried about dogs and children going into it so decided to get it filled in.

 

Fortunately, I had the pond I'd dug all ready so we moved the plants (a lily, an iris and something else) up there in wheelbarrows:

 

Water lily

I'd partially drained the pond so I could place the lily in the middle. The other plants were placed on the edges, where I'd not dug it out to full depth.

We then had to think about what to do with the wildlife in the old pond. We knew there were no fish but had been told there were newts in there. Some pond dipping with a small net brought up an impressive number of smooth newts, which were tipped into a bucket of water and taken up to the new pond. Included in the catch were a load of large dragonfly nymphs (some of them larger than the newts!):

 

Dragonfly nymph

The easiest way of finding them was to tip a bucket of pond water onto a perforated tray. The newts and nymphs could clearly be seen wriggling and were placed into the holding bucket

 

Smooth newt

I estimate about 25 newts were moved. They're now in a much bigger pond, fed by a spring so if shouldn't dry up.