To celebrate the summer solstice, we made a determined effort to spot a newt in our lily pond yesterday afternoon, that is to say Sunday afternoon, sitting over it for some time. The water was reasonably clear and there were some good gaps between the lily leaves, but we failed. So nothing since the newts noticed at reference 1.
But by way of compensation, I dreamed of having another go last night and I was rewarded with a very clear sighting of three newts, swimming lazily about in clear water at the bottom of the pond, before being covered with a wave of black silty water, the sort of thing you get if, for example, you stir the pond up by pouring a lot of water into one side.
Unrealistic to the extent that I do not remember when I last saw the bottom of the pond. Clear conditions means maybe the top 10 inches of the 20 or so available.
PS: taking another look at the pond this morning, I was reminded that there were a lot of distinctive flies, busy in the sun, on the water lily leaves, possibly mating. About a quarter of an inch long, shiny yellow-brown foreparts, swept back wings with one black bar each. Sometimes stuck out at right angles, presumably by way of display. Sadly, despite there being plenty of fly identification aids out there, for example reference 2, I failed to find the flies in question. The best I could do was Neuroctena anilis, ticking some of the boxes at reference 3; getting there but not quite right.
Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/04/batch-558.html.
Reference 2: http://phorid.net/zadbi/education/how-to-identify-flies/.
Reference 3: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryomyza_anilis. Dryomyza anilis is, seemingly, another name for Neuroctena anilis.
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