After last week's rain, we look set for a couple of weeks of warm, sunny weather - perfect for insect watching, and in particular for hunting dragons. Even on a casual lunchtime walk around the Woodland Trail and through the Rhododendron Tunnel to Island Mere I spotted a few beautiful dragons and damsels, including two of the species from our 70 species challenge: four-spotted chaser and blue-tailed damselfly.
It's still quite early in the season for dragons, with just three species on the wing so far, of which four-spotted chaser is probably the most numerous. The closely related broad-bodied chaser is trickier to find at Minsmere. The third dragon flying so far is the hairy dragonfly, the smallest of our hawker species. These are at their most numerous in late May, before the bigger hawkers emerge in June and July (including the Norfolk hawker which is another of the 70 species).
Four-spotted chasers are one of the easiest dragonflies to spot, and to identify. They have a habitat of flying around a pond or ditch and regularly returning to the same perch, wings outstretched, when the black spots that give it it's name are clearly visible in the wings - two on each wing, hence four per side - as can clearly be seen in this photo.
Although the variety of dragons is low in May, the smaller damsels are at their best, with huge clouds of blue damselflies providing a real ID test - common blue, azure and variable damselflies are all very similar and move so fast that it can be hard for beginners to pick out the key ID features. Fortunately, the blue-tailed damselflies are a bit easier as the blue in the abdomen is restricted to the tip - hence the name - and are equally as common (see photo below). The red-eyed damselfly has a similar abdomen pattern, but the red eyes are distinctive and it has a habit of resting on floating vegetation rather than emergent stems,. The other common damselfly to look for at the moment is the large red damsel, but look carefully and you may spot an emerald damsel.
Of course, dragons and damsels aren't the only insects to look for in this lovely sunny weather. There's a good variety of butterflies on the wing including the first painted ladies, red admirals, several speckled woods and lots of small coppers (all of which are among the 70 species), a few brimstones and several orange tips, as well as common blue, green hairstreak and various whites. Among the day flying moths are the gorgeous red and black cinnabar moths, whose caterpillars are another of the 70 species to look for later in the summer.
With so many insects now on the wing, there's plenty of food for the hobbies, sand martins and swallows (all on the 70 species list), and the various warblers that are singing so loudly around the reserve. These include the Savi's warbler that remains south of Island Mere, while Cetti's warbler, chiffchaff and whitethroat are all on the 70 species list.
Look out too, for young birds, including ringed plover chicks on the beach, avocet and lapwing chicks on the Scrape, juvenile bearded tits in the reedbed and treecreeper fledglings in the woods. And, of course, there's bitterns, marsh harriers, black-headed gulls, kittiwakes, common, Sandwich and little terns, little egrets and much more to spot.
All in all, a visit this week could easily allow you to spot about 40 of the 70 species from our challenge (50 if you're really lucky). And, with our bioblitz starting on Saturday, there will be many chances to find a whole lot more exciting species.