I didn't expect autumn's colours to be blue

Back in the summer, I presented the 'stick trick' - erect a stick in or near a pond in a sunny position and there is every chance that it will be commandeered by a dragonfly as a launch pad.

But I can't deny that in the back of my mind I had a vague hope - no, let's call it a dream - that one day something even more spectacular might use it.

Sometimes, you know, dreams come true.

Yes, I realised that my chances were higher than most because I pushed the boat out (almost literally) and made as big a pond as I could. But, nevertheless, my garden is still in the middle of a town with no river or stream within more than half a mile as the Kingfisher flies.

So quite how it found my pond I don't know, but it just shows that almost anything is possible in gardens.

I like the front of a Kingfisher, but I have to say I'm even more fond of the rear view. Backwards and forwards it went, diving into the pond repeatedly but always coming back to its stick.

Although the light was fading, you can perhaps work out what it was finding to eat...

Yes, large dragonfly nymphs, in what is only a nine-month old pond.

So nature is already fleshing out the foodchains - the pond was colonised naturally by tiny invertebrates in the spring, which fed the dragonfly nymphs, which are now food for the master fisher of all.

And who'd have thought a simple stick would have played such a large part in it?