At last some sunshine - perfectly timed for my dragonfly and damselfly workshop on Monday.
At 11 am, 15 or so of our wonderful volunteers arrived to learn about these fascinating species. With Pulborough Brooks being the joint top RSPB nature reserve for its Odonata (dragons & damsels) with 26 species we had plenty to talk about and a lot to learn!
These fantastic creatures (well their ancestors at least) have been around for 325 million years, patrolling the swamps with their metre wide wingspans when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth. They are supreme predators - fast flying reaching speeds of up to 25 mph, great eyesight, powerful jaws and legs covered in bristles to grasp on to their prey. And they are really rather beautiful too.
We decided to explore the heathland and our first stop was black pond where we quickly found a nice collection to test our id skills - tricky blue damselflies (which turned out to be azures), blue-tailed damselflies, 4-spotted chaser dragonflies and for me best of all were the stunning emerald damselflies. In some years we hardly see any of these beautiful insects - their life cycle is adapted so they can inhabit ephemeral ponds that dry out from time to time. If there has been a dry year, other species with a longer larval stage may struggle resulting in less competition for the emeralds.
Male emerald damselfly (with blue tip to tail) photographed by Gary Trew. Female by Russ Tofts
Continuing through the central section of the heath we reached the pond at the 3-way junction, and in full sunlight there were several aerial battles going on. You could hear the clash of wings as 4-spotted chasers vied over the best perches and any passing females, a powder-blue broad bodied chaser (the males) circled the pond edge continuously, and two male emperor dragonflies were sqaubbling over a female. One of them was clearly successful as she could later be seen egg laying. The second male was perhaps more intent on finding food and actually managed to catch and consume a 4-spotted chaser - quite a hefty meal!
To enable us to get a closer view of some of the damselflies so that we could examine their key identification features, some of our volunteers risked a soaking by pursuing them with nets from the pool edge...
Using this technique we were able to get up close and personal with both male and female azure damselflies, blue-tailed and large red damselflies.
Do be sure to quiz our volunteers when you next visit!
Highlights of a brief exploration around the wetland trail yesterday were the brown hawker dragonflies patrolling the paths with their bronzy wings. There were also some lovely butterflies - meadow browns, ringlets, speckled woods, large and small skippers, marbled white, small tortoiseshell. Visitors and volunteers also reported a silver-washed fritillary and a clouded yellow.
I managed to take these photos with my phone - a pair of ringlets and a small skipper very much enjoying the nectar of a thistle flower.
Impressive, but slightly less enjoyable, was the swarm of bees who temporarily decided to make the visitor centre their new home yesterday - our office was buzzing!
From mid July we'll be running activities to celebrate the Big Butterfly Count so do come along and get involved. You can follow our butterfly-themed trail, take out a butterfly spotting and recording sheet or join one of our 'afternoon of butterflies' guided walks which include a delicious afternoon tea. Check out our web pages for details of upcoming events.