River Nene at Wadenhoe

I took a walk along the Nene at Wadenhoe, one of my favourite sites. It's a little early for Scarce Chasers - perhaps nearer 18th-23rd May, but there were around 30 Banded Demoiselles in attendance and a few Large Red Damselflies. Surprisingly, I came across a recently emerged male Broad-bodied Chaser. I don't know of any suitable shallow ponds near here so am unsure where it came from.

As BBCs are now emerging, I stopped off at Twywell on the way to work this morning and visited the Whitestones Ponds. The small Chaser pond (as I call it) is completely dried up, so I am not expecting anything to emerge from it as the compacted mud must make it impossible for larva to crawl out. The middle pond still has a good water level, hopefully enough to support the larvae. I couldn't find any exuviae, but than that doesn't mean too much as I don't exactly have a great track record of finding BBC exuvia.

Male Banded Demoiselle

Male Broad-bodied Chaser

Female Banded Demoiselle

Female Large Red Damselfly

Azure Damselflies appearing

During a very brief visit to Ditchford on Sunday lunchtime, I was surprised at how many Red-eyed Damselflies were emerging compared to other species. In amongst ~30 Red-eyes were only one of two Common Blues and one female Azure Damselfly.  Normally good numbers of Common Blues emerge alongside the Red-eyes. Perhaps we are in for a good Red-eye year? A couple for Blue-tails were resting in the reeds, but from their colouration I estimated they were a day or so old. No Hairys were emerging (that I could find at least).



Female Azure Damselfly



Blue-tailed Damselfly



Red-eyed Damselfly Exuvia



Make Red-eyed Damselfly

New look for my blog

I have updated the look of my blog to use Google's latest tech. This allows my pictures to be shown larger than before. There might be a few teething issues and I may make a few adjustments in the coming days until I am happy with the new look, so apologies in advance. Thanks - Mark

Bank Holiday Activity

After completing the morning's chores, I managed an hour at Ditchford. This was time to find a number of emerging Red-eyed Damselflies, Blue-tailed Damselflies and a single Common Blue Damselfly. There were also a handful of emerging Hairy Dragonflies too.

At about the same time, John Windust found Banded Demoiselles on the River Nene at Higham Ferrers.

This adds 4 new species to the County in the same day.




Banded Demoiselle (photo John Windust)




Red-eyed Damselfly




Blue-tailed Damselfly




Red-eyed Damselfly

More Hairy Dragonflies

After Jim's sighting on Saturday, I went to Ditchford at lunchtime looking for more Hairy Dragonflies. I came across 6 all at the same stage of their emergence and a mix of male and female. At this time of the season, they emerge very low down as the emergent reed growth isn't great, so you need to look close to the water and deep into the reeds.





Female with exuvia
 





Male

Hairy Dragonfly in Northampton town centre

Jim Dunkley has reported finding a female Hairy Dragonfly in Northampton town centre - on the window sill of Clark's shoe shop of all places. Where did she come from and how did she end up there? Jim said she must have been looking for the wi-fi for her sat-nav, to find her way back home. Looking at her colouration, I would say she is a day or two old.

More Large Reds

Since last Saturday, Alison and Terry and Judy have reported Large Reds emerging from their ponds. I was able to find about 15 more today, with several more exuviae. Most were emerging or taking their maiden slights. Popping in to Ditchford in the hope of finding some Hairys proved fruitless, so we will have to wait for another few days perhaps until the weather settles down.

The 2015 seasons gets off to a start

After 2.5 hours of searching in glorious weather, and just as I was about to leave, I found a Large Red Damselfly fluttering up from the reeds. Isn't it always that way!. I spent more time searching for others with the thought that I can't possibly have found the only emerging adult, but I saw no more. This is one day earlier than 2014, and by the end of April last year we had 6 species emerging so my hopes are high for a good start to 2015.

November Darters

The last month of the dragonfly season in Northants, is now upon us, and started with 6 Common Darters recorded at Ditchford on the 1st. I had hoped to find at least one Migrant Hawker but despite reasonable weather conditions they failed to show. Terry & Judy Wood saw one at Barnwell Country Park on 31 Oct so I expect some are still around, waiting to be seen.

I would love this to be the year that we get a Darter record into December, and with the warm spell recently this might just be possible.

Late October Common Darters

During he last few weeks, I have failed to find any Migrant Hawkers and only a few Common Darters. The weather has been warm, but not sunny, which may help explain this. I am sure there are Migrants out there and maybe even a few Southern Hawkers left.

As the sun gets lower in the sky, and its warmth is reduced, Common Darters rest on light, reflective surfaces such as logs, fence posts and even leaves. At Ditchford, I found one resting on a pile of Canadian pond weed dredged from the lake by the fishermen. I also found this mating pair on some concrete steps.

Southern Hawker frenzy and other updates

As September draws to a close, there are still a few species out there to see.

On 21 September, Stuart Page saw a female Black-tailed Skimmer at the western Ditchford Lakes. This is a great late date, probably the latest in the County. David Warner was also out and about and saw a Blue-tailed Damselfly at Kislingbury gravel pits, along with the usual late summer species.

I took a walk to the Whitestones Ponds at Twywell at lunchtime on 22 September. The three ponds are pretty much dried out, with only a little water left in the Broad-bodied Chaser pond. I only saw a single old female Ruddy Darter. This is in stark contrast to this time last year when there were plenty still around, and several Southern Hawkers too.

On 23 September, at Ditchford, in among the Migrants and Common Darters, I saw a single Common Blue Damselfly.

On 26 September, I saw ~40+ Common Darters including ovipositing pairs, ~30 Migrant Hawkers and 1 Brown Hawker at Burton Latimer Pocket Park.

The Big Pit pond at Fermyn Woods is a great site to see Southern Hawkers at this time of year. I popped down there today (28 Sept) as it was a reasonable afternoon. The pond was buzzing with around 12 males, many clashing when their territories crossed. Standing on one of the fishing stands, one male kept circling me looking for females - unsuccessfully at least while I was there, and several clashes occurred. One particular male had a damaged leg that didn't retract correctly and it was interesting to use this as an identification feature during the clashes. I heard several sets of rustling wings in the reeds, but was never too sure whether these were from ovipositing females or fighting males. Only 2 Common Darters put in an appearance.

That makes a total of 7 species in the last full week of September - not bad!

Female Ruddy Darter at Twywell Hills and Dales

Male Common Darter at Fermyn Woods

Males Common Darter at Fermyn Woods

Male Southern Hawker, Big Pit Pond at Fermyn Woods

Southern Hawker

Southern Hawker

Southern Hawker (with damaged leg)

Two Hawkers at Ditchford

I returned to Ditchford hoping to get some more mating shots of Migrant Hawkers. The weather wasn't quite so good and the numbers were markedly down on Monday, but there were still 30 or so flying. No mating shots, but a few good head-on shots, such as this one where the hawker is cleaning his eyes from cobwebs etc. after searching among the reeds for a female. On my way out, I encountered this Southern Hawker flying around the meadow close to the water. He actually took up a territorial position over the water alongside the Migrants. Southern Hawkers don't breed at Ditchford, but appear occasionally, but I have never seen one take up territory before.

Southern Hawker



Migrant Hawker

 

Migrant Hawkers galore

Ditchford is my favourite site for Migrant Hawkers because there are so many around and you can get quite close to them. This lunchtime, there were in excess of 100 adults around, including at least 6 mating pairs. There was so  much activity that the pairs weren't staying still for too long. It's great to watch the males fighting over territory and cleaning their wings and feet from cobwebs. A Brown Hawker flew past, and a couple of Common Blues and Common Darters were also present.

Titchmarsh Nature Reserve

It's been a long time since I visited Titchmarsh, so I decided to call in this afternoon. Our first sighting was a female Common Darter on the footpath just passed the carpark. We turned left through the gate to head towards the River. Several Migrant Hawkers were buzzing around the bur-reeds on the river margins, and I caught sight of a couple of mating pairs. While watching and photographing the hovering males, about 10 male and 1 female Banded Demoiselle appeared. The female was part of a mating pair, but I thought something was unusual, as the male wasn't a Banded. It turned out that a male Common Blue Damselfly had grasped the female Banded. The pairing didn't last long enough to record though. Many more Hawkers and Common Darters were around, although I didn't see any Male Darters. On  the return, I found a male Ruddy Darter and a male Common Blue that was only a few days old, as he hadn't gained the full blue colouration yet. September seems a rather late date to emerge for a Common Blue.



Migrant Hawker



Female Common Darter



Male Ruddy Darter



Male Banded Demoiselle



Immature male Common Blue Damselfly



Female Common Darter