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Large Red Damselfly, Pyrrhosoma nymphula

Large Red Damselfly, Pyrrhosoma nymphula

Azure Damselfly, Coenagrion puella

Common Darter, Sympetrum striolatum

Southern Hawker, Aeshna cyanea, female

Southern Hawker, Aeshna cyanea, 'blue' male

Anax imperator (Emperor Dragonfly)

Aeshna mixta (Migrant Hawker),

Various species, my garden 1st Jan 2008

Insects in my garden

The Bee Gallery and the Hoverfly Gallery and the Ladybird Gallery all have many photographs taken in my garden.

About my garden

My garden is fairly ordinary, medium sized and urban, it has too much concrete, and two fairly basic ponds, it is more or less as it was when I moved in, I have done very little apart from removing 2 very large shrubs and several of 36 fir trees, which would have totally swamped everything, and planting a dwarf apple & a dwarf cherry tree, several Redcurrant bushes and some rhubarb.

Most introductions have either blown in, arrived via bird visitors, or come from unwanted specimens I have brought home to identify and thrown into the garden. I have been amazed at the diversity of species which I have found and identified, puzzled by those which remain unidentified, and enthralled as I watch the 'goings on in the garden'. The more I look the more I find, and I hope to display many more of my photographs on the internet eventually.

The list of flora and fauna from my own garden runs to at least 590 different species, including wild and cultivated plants, with:

These account for 454 species (all numbers are approximate) which leaves (at least) 136 'others' - such as small flies, mites, woodlice, lacewings, etc.

I could not possibly list them all here, but the above lists should give an indication of the biodiversity that is to be found in our gardens if we care to look. It also shows that even ordinary gardens can provide a haven for nature.