Look at these beasts....

Close up of a freshwater louse

Miss Barnes year 5 class at Ashton Gate primary have also sent contributions to the blog so I'm going to let them tell you all about their pond dipping experience yesterday.

Damselfly nymph

'We have been lucky enough to do this project trout and about with Julie who is from The Avon Wildlife Trust. We are not the only school doing this, many others are too. Over the past few weeks, we have been keeping trout eggs in the other classroom which we visit regularly. Just recently a few of the eggs hatched into aleviens which is the first stage of a fish’s life. Some of our eggs haven’t survived. Once the eggs die they turn from bright orange to white and opaque. We must remove once this happens as not to infect healthy eggs. The eggs are not supposed to all survive so we are not too disappointed or upset.

Midge larva also known as a bloodworm

Yesterday we went pond-dipping in our school pond to find out more about the wildlife in our environment. We found many interesting things like newts and leeches. We were in small groups and we had a microscope each to study these fine creatures. When we looked at them close up we could see fine detail that defies the eye. We took several indoors so we could all take a very close look. We saw a freshwater louse, a rather sickening blood worm and a damselfly in a shield of leaves and mud to protect it from hungry carnivores. We all found them very fascinating (though some of us with weaker stomach felt a bit sick!) and wanted to still study them the next day.

On the last week of our project we will take a bus down to Chew Valley Lake to release our fully-grown trout. We will wish them much luck with the rest of their life.'