Recent Sightings Friday 2nd June
Thanks to volunteer Phil for his report and photos.
On a warm sunny morning at the end of half term week I found myself at the Visitor Centre pond pointing out the wonders of our blue damselflies to some of our young visitors. One of the eagle-eyed youngsters pointed out a large and rather fearsome looking insect on a long leaf growing out of the pond and asked me what it was.
Fortunately, I knew just enough to realise the answer – a dragonfly exuvia. This is the outer casing of a dragonfly larva which has climbed out of the pond, split its outer casing from which the adult dragonfly emerges over the course of a few hours. It seems extraordinary that the casing is left behind seemingly intact and so looks just like a large fearsome insect when it is actually a harmless empty shell.
I am advised that that the size of this exuvia shows it to come from an emperor dragonfly, the largest of all the UK species. A look around the rest of the pond revealed a further 4 similar exuviae. Curiously however the only adult dragonfly to be seen around the pond was a powder blue male broad bodied chaser. This photo of one was taken later in the day by the pond at Redstart Corner.
So where were all the emperors? They could have been predated by birds but I understand that it is quite normal in many species for the newly emerged dragonflies (called tenerals) to move away from their normal flight areas for a few days while they mature into fully grown adults, during which time the colour markings will develop.
I also noticed a few blue tail damselflies at the Visitor Centre Pond – my first sighting for the year. This species is one of 3 in the UK that has a dark body and blue tail, the others being the red eyed and small red eyed damselflies for which the obvious eye colour aids identification. In the warm sunshine all the damselflies were too active to photograph but here is a perched blue tail taken last summer.
A short while later I found myself with the same group of young people by the small pond next to the path going into Fattengates Courtyard. Here I was able to show them a pair of azure damselflies attached to each other with the female at the rear laying eggs.
There was also some bird interest on the reserve including the group of black tailed godwits on the South Brooks pool which have been there for over a week. On this occasion only 9 could be seen.
On the North Brooks a cuckoo was calling for much of the day and was seen several times. One of our visitors was lucky enough to see a pair together and this seems to be a good year for cuckoos on the reserve with frequent calls heard and several sightings since April.
A sitting lapwing, possibly on a nest, was at Winpenny just a few feet beyond the pool looking left from the hide. A now well grown lapwing chick was visible at West Mead along with a redshank and a small family party of starlings.
There are plenty of wildflowers to enjoy currently but a rather unusual specimen is the common spotted orchid seen to the right of the path on the grassy bank going down towards Nettley’s Hide.
These only crop up very occasionally here and yet they are abundant in Wiggonholt churchyard next door
I stayed for the After Dark Nighttime Safari visitor event and had a quiet couple of hours after the Visitor Centre closed. Just after 5pm I sat by the Visitor Centre Pond for about 20 minutes noting that despite the bright warm weather no dragonflies or damselflies were stirring, and even the beautiful water lily seen here in the morning had already closed up for the night.
In the evening went we spent some time looking at moths caught in the trap the night before One strikingly camouflaged example was a buff tip which looks exactly like a twig from a silver birch tree. Its hard to make out any eyes but this photo shows the head of the moth.
After finding soprano pipistrelle bats near Black Pond we heard a lengthy bout of nightjar “churring” on the heathland. The evening finished off with a few minutes of “pond peering” by torchlight. This is often a better method for looking at the underwater wildlife than in daytime when light reflection from the water surface can make it more difficult to see underneath.
Near the edge of the pond we could see a dragonfly larva and several newts including the one in this photo.
The highlight however was something that brought the day full circle. Two large dragonfly larvae were slowly climbing up tall leaves emerging from the pond. I expect by now they have metamorphosed into adult dragonflies leaving behind 2 more fearsome looking but harmless exuviae. Two years ago I took this photo of a female emperor dragonfly laying eggs into the same pond
Given that it may take the emperor dragonflies 2 years to develop into adults it is possible that the larvae and exuviae seen on this day were the result of this same act of egg laying.