I will act as a semaphore

So my pond is starting to accumulate life. It's amazing how quickly things will find and gravitate towards a fairly uninspiring bit of water. I've started the process of muddying and planting the outer edges and have got a variety of native species in already: Marsh Marigold, Yellow Flag Iris, Water Mint, Water Plantain, Gypsywort, and Purple Loosestrife.

Water beetles of different shapes and sizes keep turning up and I've found other beetle species on the margins doing their thing. A Four-spotted Chaser even turned up today, did a couple of laps of the pond then disappeared off up high.

It does seem to be mainly diptera making use of the pond at the moment though. There are countless mosquito larvae in the top few centimetres as well as some other unknown diptera larvae in the shallow parts. However, the one that caught my eye was a stunning fly with a greeny-bronze thorax and white tips to the wings. The most striking thing about them was that they were flicking their wings in some sort of signal to the less gaudy females.

These flies are perfect case of 'say what you see'. They are Poecilobothrus nobilitatus the Semaphore Fly, one of the Dolichopodidae. A common species around the edges of ponds, lakes and waterways. Another species I've never noticed before. I suspect I could spend hours on my belly staring at the small stuff that now calls this pond home. Fascinating stuff.

Today's title inspiration comes from the mighty Maximo Park. Very few people tell such immediately  engaging short stories in the space of a song as Paul Smith, the lead singer. Well worth checking out their work.