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Adrian Thomas
Whatever you do, watch the video in the link at the bottom of this blog!
Occasionally as a kid I’d go to the local fair when it came to town. We’d ride contraptions that felt on the rickety side of safe and get cricked necks on the waltzers while the music blared and the invitations rang out to "scream if you want to go faster".

And then of course there were the dodgems, where you paid to get whiplash as you attempted to ram your mates.

I'm reminded of dodgems daily in my garden during spring and summer because of one of the most amazing creatures you will ever see. In over 10 years’ worth of blogs, I can’t believe I’ve never written about them before, despite them giving me so much pleasure.
They are whirligig beetles. (There are 12 species in the UK, but identifying them is tricky).
They sit like little black seeds on the water surface, sometimes still...
But all waiting for the signal to suddently whizz around at breakneck speed in gangs of a dozen or more, colliding wilfully into one another.
And here's the really cool stuff:
  • They have two eyes looking up into the air, and two looking down into the water (although I'm thinking evolution might have done well to equip them with two facing forwards as well)
  • As well as the adults swimming on the water surface, they can also fly in the air, and if they sense danger they will dive down to the bottom of the pond - this is the creature that really does make full use of all the elements
  • To stop being picked off by fish from below and birds from above, they exude a smell that is said to be like rotting apples
  • They are the vacuum cleaners of the water surface, sensing the tiniest of ripples of little creatures and charging in to mop them up
  • And they are the most efficient rowers yet found anywhere in the animal kingdom, hence the incredible speeds and acceleration.
And there's no point telling you that without giving you some moving footage, so here is 17 secs of crazy whirligigs in my pond. I think they're just bonkers, and of course to get a piece of the action, you know the score - make a pond!

If you want to drop by my RSPB wildlife gardening blog, it is updated every Friday, and I'd love to see you there - www.rspb.org.uk/community/blogs/hfw