With thanks to volunteer Phil for this brilliant report about the variety of dragonfly and damselfly species we get here at Pulborough Brooks. You should all be experts by the time you've read it!
As someone with a long-term interest in wildlife and photography I have for many years regarded taking successful photographs of dragonflies in flight as a holy grail. However, there is just one problem. As far as I am aware no-one has yet designed a camera that can pick out and accurately focus on these astonishing insects fast enough. My attempts so far have been largely unsuccessful, with just a few successes to keep me looking for that grail.
On Wednesday I filled in a couple of hours before the Summer Barbecue with a visit to the heathland ponds which are a great place to see dragonflies and their close cousins the damselflies in high summer. I was amazed to discover at the top pond a photographer taking pictures of dragonflies using a large format film camera. I exchanged a few words but he very politely made it clear that this job required some intense concentration so I wished him success and retreated to attempt my own photos. It would have been very interesting to see if he could have shared any ideas on this subject, but it clearly requires a lot of patience and concentration.
A few weeks ago I spent about 45 minutes at the Moat Pond at Thursley Common near Guildford and managed just one usable shot in many of a downy emerald dragonfly.
I mention this species because there has been a recent report of one seen on the heathland and there have been very occasional reports of this species before at Pulborough Brooks.
Dragonflies are much easier to photograph when perched and fortunately many of the UK species can be found in this position relatively easily. The smallest dragonflies belong to a group called darters which often perch on flat surfaces such as the tops of fenceposts and dart out to catch prey. Here is a male ruddy darter using a fencepost by Black Pond.
The very similar common darters are often seen. The males are a slightly less bright shade of red and have a much less pronounced waist than the ruddy darters. The latter also have all black legs as opposed to brown with a yellow stripe in the former.
In a few weeks we may start to see black darters on the heathland ponds
Another variety of small to medium sized dragonflies are the skimmers. These typically fly low over water and perch on the ground or low vegetation. For the first time on the reserve I found a black tailed skimmer by the top heathland pond. This male is duly perching on the ground.
With its similar colouring, it is important not to confuse it with the male broad bodied chaser, but it has a much slimmer abdomen,
The other UK variety of skimmer is the keeled skimmer but this is a specialist of boggy heathland and has never been recorded here. Thursley Common is a good place to see these.
Next in size are the chasers, medium sized dragonflies which typically perch and then fly out to chase intruders or in the case of male, pursue females. Broad bodied chasers are commonly seen here but the species is fast approaching the end of its main flight period and sightings are becoming less frequent. Last week however I witnessed the extraordinary sight of a male and female cavorting over the pool at Winpenny in the “mating wheel” position where they clasp onto each other with appendages at the tips of their abdomens. It’s astonishing to think that they can fly at all in this position, but they were far too fast to photograph. After a few seconds they split up and the female perched conveniently near the hide.
Four spotted chasers can still easily be seen at Black Pond and on the top heathland pond. The four spots are those seen in the middle of leading edge of the wings.
I believe they also mate on the wing but I've not seen this.
Another species, the scarce chaser, is only very occasionally seen here and will typically fly in early summer, and does at least have the decorum to perch while mating. This pair was photographed a couple of years ago a few miles away at Burton Mill Pond.
The most difficult of all to photograph and the largest and most spectacular dragonflies are the hawkers which are nearly always seen flying. Unlike other species, when they do perch it is often in a vertical position. Currently we have emperor, brown hawker and southern hawker flying on the reserve and relatively easily seen near the ponds or ditches. Later in the summer, and flying into early autumn, we should also find migrant hawker.
This photo of a brown hawker is near the Dipping Pond but several were to be seen by the ditch in front of Nettley’s hide.
The generally brown colouration is the most obvious feature so they are easily identified.
More easy to photograph was this female emperor dragonfly which was laying eggs (ovipositing) into Black Pond and so not exactly in flight .
The eggs will hatch into larvae which will grow into fearsome looking underwater predators and emerge in 2 years to become adults and breed to start the lifecycle once again.
Southern hawkers, especially the males, show similar green and blue colouring to emperors when in flight. However, they have a broad diagonal dark bands on the green thorax which are absent in the emperor and a more intricate pattern on the abdomen. This photo was taken last year at Pipe Pond.
Damselflies, being relatively weak fliers, can generally be more easily be seen perched than dragonflies. One of the most spectacular seen recently has been the banded demoiselle male as in this photo which are a little larger than most of the other species.
The similarly metallic and iridescent beautiful demoiselle can also be seen on the reserve. Unlike dragonflies nearly all damselflies perch with their wings closed but in this photo a beautiful demoiselle female has briefly flicked its wings open.
Emerald damselflies are a notable exception as they perch with wings held out at a roughly 45 degree angle as can be seen in this photo.
The blue on this specimen shows it to be a male. Emeralds can be seen on the reserve currently and the fenced area by Black Pond accessible through a gate is a good place to look.
I should mention that Pulborough Brooks has records of 26 species of dragonfly and damselfly which make it joint top of all the RSPB reserves with Arne in Dorset, reflecting the range of habitat we have here. This is more than half the number of known UK breeding species.
In my next post I intend to feature butterflies which can be seen in large numbers all over the reserve right now. In the meantime the list of species I’ve seen in the last week is: large and small white, peacock, red admiral, meadow brown, ringlet, gatekeeper, large small and Essex skippers, holly blue, comma, marbled white, painted lady, speckled wood and that splendid orange coloured woodland species the silver washed fritillary. There have also been reports of white admiral in Black Wood and a possible very early brown hairstreak near the picnic area by the composting toilet.
Notable bird sightings have included hobbies, probably attracted by the dragonflies, and family groups of green woodpeckers, treecreepers and bullfinches.
Finally I must mention a “what on earth is that” moment I had while walking between Winpenny and Redstart Corner on Friday. On some thistles in the long grasses to the side of the path was a spectacular insect I’d never encountered before.
Research at home shows that this to be a Roesel’s bush cricket, named after an 18th century German entomologist, August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof. Apparently this grassland species is gradually becoming one of the more common bush crickets in the UK, centered on the South East but gradually spreading north and west.