Good morning. There was a definite theme to yesterday afternoon in the office: that of “alien” metamorphosis. Now before you think we have all gone slightly mad, let me tell you why. It all started when these two pictures arrived in our reserve inbox, which were taken on the reserve on 13 May:
Image credits: Dave & Helen Tanner
Thank you very much to Dave & Helen from sharing these great images with us.
They clearly show an Odonata (dragonfly or damselfly species) emerging out of its exo-skeleton (or exuvia if you want the posh word) Now, I freely admit that none of the staff here are experts in dragonfly or damselfly identification so were a bit stumped as to what species it might be. Given the time of year, it is most likely to be a four spotted chaser or a hairy dragonfly (but it may not have been either of course!)
The issue is that species don’t always show their “true” colours so to speak when they first emerge (that’s our excuse anyway!)
After all of that excitement, volunteer Emma came into the office at around 4pm saying that there was a large dragonfly species emerging out of the pond bed in front of the visitor centre:
Image credits: David White
Apologies about the poor quality of the pictures (they are mine after all!) It was just an amazing coincidence and a real treat to watch this happen in front of our very eyes. Now, you may be wondering what species this one is. Well, given its size, surely it could only be an emperor dragonfly or a brown hawker. However, as I said above, none of us are experts in this particular field!
Anyhow, that’s enough of that nonsense for now! It was a lovely day yesterday and the little bittern was still present. It was seen in flight a couple of times during the day over New Fen North triangle. The reserve staff did a “big” bittern survey during the morning and volunteer Darren saw an impressive 15 flights while he was based at Joist Fen viewpoint.
There was some excitement when a male Montagu’s harrier was reported from Joist Fen viewpoint hunting with the marsh harriers. Two turtle doves flew west along the river and a male variable damselfly was seen feeding over the riverbank along with plenty of banded demoiselles.
I will finish once again with a notices that will be relevant if you are planning to visit the reserve during the next week:
There are now cattle on the riverbank Public Footpath between the visitor centre and Joist Fen viewpoint.
We hope to see you soon!