3.35 p.m., 71°F, 23°C, gentle breeze: Docks, brambles, dog daisies and grasses overhang the pond which is carpeted with duckweed. 
A pair of blue damselflies are clasped together, hovering lightly over the pond and touching down to lay eggs just below the surface on the pondweed.
It’s been a good year for tadpoles. Some are now at the half way stage with limbs sprouting but still retaining a long tail.
A small white moth flutters around in a curlicue flightpath around the edge of the pond, a spectral presence. On still summer evenings there are often two or three hovering around.
A small red-tailed bumble bee is systematically working its way around the geranium flowers.
Field Notes
Thank you Jane for the question (see comments for this post) about how I go about sketching. What I was trying to do here was sketch whatever came along during a short session watching the pond but I didn’t want to end up with just sketches so I started writing my field notes straight away, breaking off to draw damselflies, moths and tadpoles as I spotted them.
I didn’t get around to drawing red-tailed bee so I’ve popped in a sketch from a post I wrote six years ago: Summer Evening Sketches
Hi Richard. Going through your blog is so interesting and enjoyable. The little red -tailed bumble bee above is lovely. It was probably a quick little sketch for you but the bee is captured with delicacy and knowledge. Do you recall what pen you used and do you generally add colour at the time or later?
Hi Jane, Thank you, good question: I’ve forgotten which pen I used for the bee because I popped that particular drawing in from a previous post, six years ago at nine in the evening and the date was 6/6/06: ‘A summer evening is a lovely time to draw but I’ve usually finished my day’s drawing by now. It’s a more reflective time; quieter and somehow more suited to drawing than the bustle and bluster of the day. Suited to a different type of drawing.
I’ve got blackbirds singing in stereo; one from the wood and another from the garden next door. There are still bees buzzing around; I saw a red-tailed bumble-bee earlier working over the chive flowers.’
I usually add the colour at the time but sometimes when I’m in a hurry I’ll make a conscious effort to memorise it or I’ll take a photograph. In the latter case the colour doesn’t always turn out exactly as it was (my fault, I usually leave the camera on an auto or semi-automated setting), but it still a useful reminder.
I’ve added a bit to the post on my current sketching kit.
Thank you Richard for your reply which is full of interesting and helpful information. I will look out for the red-tailed bees when I visit England next, hopefully next year.
I struggle to identify other bumble bees but the red-tailed is unmistakable.