Hairy Dragonflies at Ditchford

A break from decorating my daughter's bedroom allowed me 30mins at Ditchford from 1330hrs. I hunted hard and eventually found two emerging Hairy Dragonflies. The temperature was 9-10 degrees C, and felt cold. The Hairys had emerged successfully, however this female appears to have collected some debris on her wings. I hope this doesn't hinder her flight.

Frustrating Weather

After the wettest April on record, today (30 April) had some promise for sunshine, The weather didn't disappoint so I took a walk along the River Ise to Southfields Farm Marsh, this being the only Large Red Damselfly site I can reach on my lunch break. The River was higher than I have ever seen and was in danger of flooding the footbridge to our carpark at Weetabix. Towards the Marsh it had broken its banks and it waqs hard to tell where the riover ended and the footpath began. Needless to say, I abandoned my walk and headed back to the office. So frustrating - this April is the first one I have not seen any Large Reds since I began active Recording!

Chris is having more luck, having seen two more Large Reds around Greens Norton.

The 2012 Season gets off to a start

Chris Emary reports seeing the Counties first Large Red Damselfly at Kings Sutton Station on 21 April. I have visited several sites so far and seen nothing, so this coming week looks set to see more Large Reds emerge.

Mid November Activity

Walking over a bridge over the River Ise yesterday, I disturbed a pair of Common Darter in cop. This is a good late date to find a mating pair, so I set off to Ditchford this afternoon with the sun nice and bright and temps hivering around the 13 degrees C mark. At this time of year, any remaining Darters hunt our reflective surfaces to bask on and collect as much sun energy as possible. A common site is to see them on tree stumps and fence posts. Well, I managed to find three this way in amongst a lot flies also absorbing the sun's warmth. If this warm weather continues we may even see some Darters into December. The photos show a male and female (top).

Recent Ovipositing Action

The Common Darters and Migrant Hawkers are busy ovipositing at the moment, and when a group of Darters get together it is quite mad! Here are pictures of a Migrant Hawker and a close-up shouing the ovipositor inserted into the plant stem. Capturing tandem Darters ovipositing is very hard as they move quite jerkily and quickly, so the images here are the result of over 500 shots.

Migrant Hawkers Ovipositing

Another trip to Finedon Pocket Park found this female Migrant Hawker ovipositing into dead plant stems some 1.5m from the pond margin. This is a protective measure to keep the eggs safe until they hatch in the spring, when water levels have risen.

Migrant Hawker Frenzy

As we enter late summer, early atumun, Migrant Hawkers start to appear in large numbers. At Ditchford this lunchtime I saw about 30 including ovipositing females and mating pairs. I managed to capture these males hovering searching for females. Also seen were a few Common Blue Damselflies, a single Red-eyed Damselfly, lots of Common Darter and a few Brown Hawker.

More Common Darters

Finedon packet park is becoming on of my favourite places as I have recorded 13 species there so far, including a couple of Migrant Hawkers. There were many Common & Ruddy Darter buzzing around and I managed to captures these few males in-flight.

Small Red-eyed Damselflies, at last

Last year, Small Red-eyed Damselflies were recorded from the end of June, so I have been checking a few of their usual sites since that time this year. I have not seen them until today, which is around their usual time. I wonder if the adults seen in June last year were a new influx from the continent, or the poor June/July weather this year delayed their emergence? Anyway, at Highham Ferrers Pocket Park and Gravel Pits, several hundred were about, mainly some distance from the bank making photography difficult. Several pairs were ovipositing and in tandem, like this one above

Common Darters

While it is still early in their season, there are plenty of Common Darters about. I saw this lot at Finedon Pocket Park, where there were also a pair ovipositing. Also there, Ruddy Darter, Azure, Blue-tailed and Emerald Damselflies and Brown Hawker.

Emperors at old Sulehay

Saturday pm was perfect dragonfly weather, so I visted Old Sulehay to find Emerald Damselflies as they are missing from this area, and a colony would fill a gap in the Northants atlas. Alas, no Emeralds, but there were 12 Emperors, including ovipositing females, Black-tailed Skimmer, Southern Hawker, Common Darter, Azure, Common Blue and Blue-tailed Damselflies. I managed a couple of decent in flight shots of the Emperors.

At last - an Emperor in flight

I managed to catch thios male Emperor in flight at Wilson's Pits this lunchtime. In total, Igot about 6 decent pictures. Fou males were present and one ovipositing female. Also present, a couple of Black-tailed Skimmer, loads of Common Blue Damselflies and Red-eyed Damselflies.

On the River Nene at Waddenhoe

I popped down to Waddenhoe this afternoon to see how the Scarce Chasers were doing. While the weather was sunny about 12 adults appeared including 3 mating pairs. Good numbers considering the time in their season. I was surprised by the lack of Banded Demoiselle - I only saw about 10 in total, including this beautiful female (photo above). Normally, several hundred would be flitting about the water. Emperors, Brown Hawker, Red-eyed Damselflies, Blue-tailed and Common Blues were also present, again in reduced numbers.

Emperors at Finedon Pocket Park

Doug Goddard sent me a few records from a pond at Finedon Pocket Park, which actually is very close to where I work, so I have been visiting weekly over the last couple of weeks. Today, in the sunshine I saw two male Emperors fighting over territory and this ovipositing female. A single, old male Four-spotted Chaser occassionally joined in and many Azures oviposited in the algae. In the reeds I found a good number of Southern Hawker exuviae and I disturbed 5 recently emerged Ruddy Darter. Unfortunaltely, they flew into the trees before I could get a decent shot.