Day 5: Connecting with nature to improve my wellbeing in the dark days of winter by going on a mini-pond safari
This evening it is about 13 degrees centigrade outside, this is warm for December even in the UK. I drove home from work with the rain lashing down and strong winds buffeting the car. When I got home, I togged up in my full waterproofs to go out to the front garden. Fortunately, the heavy down pour had subsided when I got outside to explore the garden. It has been so wet, I thought I would look around the mini garden pond. I accidentally created this mini garden pond when I used a plastic container to carry so gravel into the front garden. I then left the container out there during a downpour. Then, when I looked in it there was some duck weed growing and a pond snail. So, I left the inpromptu mini pond in situ.
What lives in and around the pond?
Now, the mini pond has become a mini ecosystem. I have to say that I am really surprised and fascinated by the flora and fauna in the mini pond. There was a spiders web using the grass and the sides of plastic containers as anchors. There was the grass growing in the the pond. There was the duck weed. The majority of the duck weed leaves had been eaten in part. The duck weed roots were growing almost horizontally across the surface of the water, they looked like silver strands all tangled together in the torch light.
What did I discover on my safari?
The temperature was in double figures, so I thought I would spot a water snail or a garden snail or a spider. Unfortunately, I could not see any of these in or around the pond. It was fantastic to see the insect larvae. These larvae are incredibly difficult to identify down to species level. You have to catch them and look a them closely with a binocular microscope or strong hand lens. To my untrained eye I thought the larvae are mosquito larvae.
Finding out what type of larvae I had found
When I looked carefully at the video, although footage is impaired by filming at night, the larvae did not look like the images of mosquito larvae I looked at. The larvae are more likely to be midge larvae. There are lots of different types but from the images I have studied they could be biting midge larvae.
So, despite the howling winds and rain this evening, I have stepped outside and connected with nature. I find that when I observing nature, I just lose myself in that moment. This really helps my mental health all year round. But particularly helps my mood in the dark days of winter. I hope that you have managed to get outside today and connect with the nature around you.