The Wildlife of
Hidcote Gardens

 
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Pond Life - The Water Boatman

First seen on Thursday 28th March 2019 at Hidcote Gardens

Water Boatman are similar to the Backswimmer, in fact Backswimmers are often mistakenly called Water Boatmen. The obvious difference is that Backswimmers swim on their back, so you only ever see the underside. Water Boatmen swim the right way up so you only see the top half. Water Boatmen are much less common that Backswimmers. They also spend more time underwater, like this one, and so are not so easy to photograph! They feed in the debris at the bottom of a pond. This one was in Hidcote. It's pond isn't large, but its full of interesting things.