Those frustrating Willow Emeralds

Those Willow Emeralds are getting to be a right pain in the a**e. They are so hard to spot, and still in such low numbers that you can spend hours looking for them and not see any or only see 1-2 males. 2.5 hours today and only 2 males, but at least yesterday I was able to point one out to Bob who'd made 3 previous trips without success. Still, there was plenty of other activity at Finedon, with 3 mating pairs of Migrant Hawkers, ovipositing females, plenty of Common and Ruddy Darters, Southern Hawkers and a single normal Emerald.

Migrant Hawker

Male Willow Emerald

Southern Hawker

Willow Emerald

Willow Emerald

Willow Emerald

More Willows

I met up with Darryl at Finedon this lunchtime and we found 4 Willow Emeralds including a mating pair. Unfortunatley, they remained high up in the tree tantalisingly out of reach. Even when they flew around, we didn't manage to photograph them. One male perched on a branch quite close to the bank and we got some good shots when the sun burst through the clouds.

They're back!

I'm relieved to report that the Willow Emeralds are back at Finedon. I was beginning to give up hope, after so many other Counties have been seeing them for several weeks now. My concerns were that the flood on the pond in late spring, which submerged the Willows, had killed the eggs. However this seems not to be the case.

Within a few minutes of arriving, I spotted a male perched on a stick, but before I got a shot off, he launched himself at a female and they both crash-landed in the water in front of me. I got a shot to confirm ID, and went to get a rescue stick, only to find on my return that they had already escaped. Despite 1 hour searching, I couldn't locate them again. At least they survived. Of course, there's still plenty of time to find more.

Also present were ~20 ovipositing pairs of Common Darters, Ruddy Darters, Brown Hawkers, Emeralds and Migrant Hawkers including this mating pair. I also saw a few Blue-tailed Damselflies.

Female Common Darter

Aging male Emerald Damselfly

Male and female Willow Emeralds crash-landed in the pond. They survived, but weren't seen again.

Ovipositing Brown Hawker

Mating pair of Migrant Hawkers

An abundance of Migrant Hawkers

Migrant Hawkers are now building in  numbers quite rapidly and are showing well at territory at a number of sites. This is quite early as they are usually considered the autumn hawker (indeed that is the proposed new name for it). This species is great to watch at territory. These were taken at Ditchford.

No further sign of the Lesser Emperor.

Lesser Emperor at Stanwick Lakes

This year has been a good one for migrants, with an invasion of Southern Migrant Hawkers and a Yellow-spotted Emerald seen in Suffolk. I haven't heard of too many Red-veined Darters though, but plenty of Lesser Emperors have been recorded across the UK. 

To date, Northants has largely escaped these invaders, until that is, Doug Goddard reported a male Lesser Emperor at Stanwick Lakes (see Doug's photo below) on 3 August. Naturally, this prompted some excitement and, separately, around 8 of us went down to the Lakes today (4th) hoping he would show again - guess what, nothing. In fact there were so few dragonflies about , perhpos due to the recent heatwave. We did see a few Migrants, Brown Hawkers, Emperors, Common & Ruddy Darters, Brown Hawkers, Banded Demoiselles, Common Blue and Red-eyed Damselflies but in relatively small numbers. There were plenty of blue-form female Common Blues that seem more common at this time in the season.

So, although the Lesser Emperor didn't show, he (or others) may well turn up at other sites along the Nene valley.

Lesser Emperor at Stanwick Lakes (photo by Doug Goddard)

Mating Common Blue Damselflies, female of the blue colour form

Female Emperor

Mating Common Blue Damselflies, female of the blue colour form