Emerald Damselflies at Pitsford Nature Reserve

Exactly to the day from last year, Emerald Damselflies made their first appearance at Holcot Pond, Pitsford. All the ones I saw were female, and they would close their wings after a few seconds from landing - normally this species rest with their wings partly open.

Northamptonshire Dragonfly Group field trip to Yardley Chase 13 June

Fifteen people joined me on this field trip to see the Downy Emerald. Most attendees had never see this species before, so it was a very exciting time. We visited 3 ponds and saw ~50 adults including 1 pair mating. The other usual species were present too, including the first Southern Hawker of the year. I borrowed Steve Cham's 300mm f4 lens to capture these in-flight photos, and the picturie of Steve photographing us. The weather was excellent and so were the dragonflies.

Sunday, 14th June 2009

River Tove - BDS Monitoring site. Numbers of both Beautiful and Banded Demoiselles again present. Also noted were Azure,Blue Tailed, Large Red, White Legged and Red Eyed Damselfly.
There were numbers of Banded Demoiselle males holding territory and occassional "fights" between males were noted.

Saturday 12th June

Visited Weston Mill and the Clifford Hill Gravel Pit area. One Hairy Hawker male noted on the canal arm of the River Nene. a singel Brown Hawker also seen. On the River Nene A single male Emperor, A Four Spotted Chaser and a single male Beatiful Demoiselle. Some 3000 plus Blue tailed damselfly, number in tandem. Good numbers of Red Eyed with also some in tandem. Common Blue, Azure and Bandeds. Two Black Tailed Skimmers in one of the small inlets actually in the main pit area.

White-legged Damselflies on the Ise and Scarce Chaser on the Nene

Male Scarce Chaser showing mating scares and tattered wings.

Mature female Scarce Chaser with drab, overmature colouration

Male White-legged Damselfly

Female White-legged Damselfly

At lunchtime Friday 12 June, there were many White-legged Damselflies on the Ise between Weetabix and Wicksteed Park. Numbers appear to be down on previous years, perhpas because of the poor summers over the last two years.

After work, I went to the Nene at Aldwincle and saw about 6 Scarce Chaser, both male and female. They all looked rather old and tattered, with the females having lost their bright orange colour.

The poor weather last weekend saw no dragonflies/damselflies at Greens Norton on Saturday. A short clearance in the weather on Sunday saw me at the Rive Tove for the continuance of the British Dragonfly Monitoring scheme. The river was slightly up and water levels were just above the lily pads preventing Red Eyed Damselflies from appearing. Numbers of both Beautiful and Banded Demoiselles were both down, although one pair of Banded were found in tandem. Azure 5; Blue Tailed 2; White Legged Damselfly 16 and only One Large Red Damselfly were noted.
Monday 8th at Greens Norton Pocket Park produced 47 Azures the majority of which were well away from the pond in long grass and nettles. One Beautiful Demoiselle and one blue tailed were also noted.
Tuesday 9th saw a visit to the Oxford Canal. The weather was overcast, cool and odd sunny intervals which did not last long. Blue Tailed, White Legged, a couple of Banded Demoiselle females and a single male Beautiful Demoiselle were noted on the canal.
The main reason for the visit was to check whether the small Beautiful Demoiselle colony was still present. A check of the area at 10:30 produced nothing. However at 11.15 the same site was checked again 6 (2 male and 4 female) were found at the roost site with 4 Banded Demoiselle ( 2 male and 2 female). Some of the surrounding area had had some clearance work undertaken which has opened up the canal/river area.

Rubbish weather, but Dragons still flying!

Rubbish weather again today - apparently we are in the middle of the "European Monsoon"! So, suffering from Dragonfly withdrawl symptoms, I headed off to Wilson's Pits this lunchtime. Weather was rainy, with a temperature ~17 degrees. There was a surprising amount of activity, including my first flying Emperors:

Emperor ~5 all males often clashing over territory
Red-eyed Damselfly 100+ inc oviposting pairs and exuviae
Common Blue Damselfly - 100+ inc oviposting and exuviae
Blue-tailed Damselfly 100+ inc many mating pairs
Azure Damselfly - ~20 (probably more) hidden amoung the grasses
Hairy Dragonfly ~5 searching through the reedmace looking for oviposting females and occassionally clashing with Emperors.

Maturing Scarce Chaser

I called in at the Nene, Kinewell Lake on my home tonight and saw a mature Scarce Chaser in exactly the same spot as last week (see earlier blog post) - I wonder if they are territorial about their roosts as well?. Last week, he was only partially blue. Over the intervening seven days, the full blue "pruinescence" has developed.

More Downy in-flight photos

Here are my latest batch of photos. I am learning a lot about their behaviour and this helps greatly in getting a good shot.

Black-tailed Skimmers & Emperors Now Flying

I took the family to Stanwick Lakes and within minuted of arriving we found the first Black-tailed Skimmer emerging low down amoung the grasses of the pits sorrounding the ranger's hut. The photo above shows one with the characteristic glassy wings of a recently emerged adult. I estimated about 20+ adults were emerging. Also seen:

Common Blue Damselfy 1000+

Red-eyed Damselfy ~100

Hairy Dragonfly ~3

Four-spotted Chaser ~4

Banded Demoiselle ~500 on all areas of the River Nene.

Blue-tailed Damselfly ~100

I was hoping to find Scarce Chaser here, as they are only a few km up the road. Alas, I saw none.

I have received records from Mark Piper & Nick Roberts who report:

"We explored a number of sites on the Nene west of Northampton today May 30th. In addition we explored ditches and pools around the Swan Valley Industrial Estate complex close to the M1 15A junction. Highlight of the Swan Valley trip was the discovery of ~5 Beautiful Demoiselles (inc. 2-3 males) in a drainage channel at OS SP721586. An atypical site shared with several Banded Demoiselles and within view of factories and housing estates. So the Beautiful Demoiselle has now reached Northampton itself. In addition a female Hairy Dragonfly was seen along this channel, another 2 males were patrolling a lake nearby at OS SP723584. Also in the Swan Valley area were good numbers of White-legged Damselflies along the ditches and canal, more interestingly several were in cop. around the lake where the 2 male Hairy D's were seen. Very good numbers of Red-eyed Damselflies were also seen, 1 Four-Spotted Chaser and 10+ Broad-bodied Chasers. The R.Nene near Kislingbury at OS SP708596 gave a female Hairy Dragonfly and a cracking male Emperor Dragonfly. Again several White-legged and Red-eyed Damselflies were seen"

Saturday 30th May

Greens Norton Pocket Park had some 15 Beatuiful Demoiselles, this is the earliest recorded date. Also note where 55 pairs of ovipositing Azures with a number of singles, two Broad Bodied Chasers, One Blue Tailed Damselfly and one Large Red Damselfly. These seem to be scarce at the reserve this year.
On the River Tove site where I undertake the new BDS monitoring programme, Beautiful and Banded were about in reasonable numbers. One pair of Beautiful Demoiselle were noted in tandem. This weekend saw Red Eyed Damselfly and White Legged Damselfly for the first time. There is a scarcity of azure and blue tailed this year.

Downy Emeralds flying at Yardley Chase

Beautiful weather today, ideal for dragonfly spotting. As I haven't yet seen Downys in flight, I went to Yardley Chase again. In the one pond complex I visited, there were 20+ males at territory. From previous years, I know that Downys are present on most of the 14 pond complexes, so that makes a rough population estimate 400 (if we assume there are an equal number of males & females). I practiced some in-flight photos and managed a couple of good ones (above). I had to set the camera ISO to 1250 to get a reasonable shutter speed as they fly so fast, so the images are a little noisy. They are my best so far.

Don't forget the Northants Dragonfly Group field trip to Yardley Chase in 13 June - a few spaces are still available (NB: Yardley Chase is a permit only site, with no public access. This field trip has been organised with the permission of Compton Estates). Contact me if you want to come along.

Ditchford Damselflies and Scarce Chaser on the Nene

As the weather was good today, I went back to Ditchford to hunt for more Variables. Alas, I could find none, not even the male I saw last week. There has been a majpr influx of Painted Lady butterflies in the county and elsehwere, so I wonder if this Variable was a migrant?

At Ditchford, I saw:

100+ Common Blue inc mating pairs (see photo)

100+ Blue-tailed Damselflies inc mating (see photo which shows a rufescens-obsoleta female colour form)

100+ Red-eyes inc many mating

20+ Azure Damselfly

5 Hairy Dragonfly inc mating pair

3 Four-spotted Chaser

Numbers are definately down on what I would expect for this time of year. Perhaps a consequence of the poor weather or a result of the poor summers in 2007 & 2008.

After work, I stopped off at Kinewell Lake, Ringstead to search for Scarce Chaser. Amoung the 100+ Banded Demoiselle, I only saw one, see photo at top, which shows a male just getting the blue colour to his abdomen.

Four-spotted Chaser in-flight photos

I went back to Yardley Chase in the hope of trying out some in-flight photos of Downy Emeralds. None were flying, so I tried to capture some of the many Four-spotted Chaser. Boy, are they fast!! I noticed that they hover around their territorial perch and following their behaviour, I managed these two photos. Both taken with Canon 40D and 55-250mm IS lens. I tried to photograph an oviposting female, but in all the photos I took, the camera focused on the background and not the female, so none came out well.