One of the best ways you can spend your time in lockdown is to introduce water into your garden. More...

When I moved into my present house 30 years ago one of the first things I did in the garden was to dig a pond. It only took me 20 years to realize that I'd put it the wrong place (under a tree, too many leaves and not enough sunshine). That didn't matter to the amphibians, birds and insects, who thought it was great. After realizing my mistake, it only took a Coronavirus pandemic to make me realize that lockdown was an opportunity to dig a second, smaller wildlife pond in a suitable location (and let the original silt up into a bog garden, as it has been trying to do for 30 years). Any water in your garden is a major wildlife gain. It doesn't need to be a lake, even an old washing up bowl or bucket sunk into the ground will be a gain and will attract a range of wildlife from frogs to thirsty bees. Be mindful of safety issues if small children could be present. 

If you do make even a wildlife puddle, one of the first creatures to splash down from the sky could well be a "Backwsimmer". We have four rather similar species in Leicestershire and Rutland so we've used the new NatureSpot ID Aids feature to write a pictorial guide so you can tell them apart. So your lockdown homework for this week is to introduce some wildlife water into your garden, then keep your eyes open and tell us what wildlife it attracts.