Damselflies and dragonflies
Another day of bright sunshine. It was too hot to walk in the forest at lunchtime, so we walked out across the water meadows to the river, through waist-high reed and grass full of singing crickets. There were a pair of dragonflies patrolling a pool beside the footpath, Broad-bodied Chasers with their stubby abdomens, the male bright blue, the female drab.
A few metres further on, we cross a drainage channel. Just above the surface of the stagnant water, turquoise needles appear to be levitating. It is tiny azure damselflies, their wings invisible in flight. Occasionally a blue male flies in tandem with a green female.
We turn to follow the river upstream for a mile or so, with Pip hurling himself in to cool off at regular intervals. House Martins are twisting and turning in the air overhead. Large, turquoise Emperor Dragonflies hover and dart above the water. They seem strictly territorial, driving off rivals, unlike the Banded Demoiselles which gather in restless clouds all along the banks. The males are easy to spot, with electric blue abdomens and black banded wings, but the females being green, blend into the vegetation and are spotted only when they take flight, their wings glinting in the sun like cellophane. Several times I saw a male pursuing a female, and once a mating wheel, with the blue male and the green female perched together on a stem, joined together at the tip, their long abdomens arcing out to form a perfect heart shape. (I wish I'd had a camera. And a professional photographer. Let's face it, my photographic skills leave so much to be desired...)
I also saw a Tortoiseshell butterfly pursuing a damselfly. Not sure what that was about - territory? mating display? senseless agression?The butterflies seem less numerous this year. There were Meadow Browns fluttering clumsily through the tall grass - they always fly as if they had been at the sherry - and I saw Large Whites, Red Admirals and a Comma. But in nothing like the numbers of last year.
Evening. Walked the dog around the forest at 7.30. Twice a dragonfly landed on the path in front of me, less than a foot away. Close enough for me to see its lower abdomen expanding and contracting, close enough to see its head moving to track the flight of a moth and to see the intricate celled structure of its wings. I think it may have been a Four Spotted Chaser, as it was the right shape, with a dull olive abdomen, but even looking closely, I could only see two spots on the wings.
And as we were coming back along the firebreak, a buzzard flew overhead with something long and thin dangling from one talon. A slow-worm? Or an adder? Do buzzards take adders? I know that they take grass snakes - I once had one fly right over me whilst I was out riding, with large, still squirming grass snake clutched in its talons.
A few metres further on, we cross a drainage channel. Just above the surface of the stagnant water, turquoise needles appear to be levitating. It is tiny azure damselflies, their wings invisible in flight. Occasionally a blue male flies in tandem with a green female.
We turn to follow the river upstream for a mile or so, with Pip hurling himself in to cool off at regular intervals. House Martins are twisting and turning in the air overhead. Large, turquoise Emperor Dragonflies hover and dart above the water. They seem strictly territorial, driving off rivals, unlike the Banded Demoiselles which gather in restless clouds all along the banks. The males are easy to spot, with electric blue abdomens and black banded wings, but the females being green, blend into the vegetation and are spotted only when they take flight, their wings glinting in the sun like cellophane. Several times I saw a male pursuing a female, and once a mating wheel, with the blue male and the green female perched together on a stem, joined together at the tip, their long abdomens arcing out to form a perfect heart shape. (I wish I'd had a camera. And a professional photographer. Let's face it, my photographic skills leave so much to be desired...)
I also saw a Tortoiseshell butterfly pursuing a damselfly. Not sure what that was about - territory? mating display? senseless agression?The butterflies seem less numerous this year. There were Meadow Browns fluttering clumsily through the tall grass - they always fly as if they had been at the sherry - and I saw Large Whites, Red Admirals and a Comma. But in nothing like the numbers of last year.
Evening. Walked the dog around the forest at 7.30. Twice a dragonfly landed on the path in front of me, less than a foot away. Close enough for me to see its lower abdomen expanding and contracting, close enough to see its head moving to track the flight of a moth and to see the intricate celled structure of its wings. I think it may have been a Four Spotted Chaser, as it was the right shape, with a dull olive abdomen, but even looking closely, I could only see two spots on the wings.
And as we were coming back along the firebreak, a buzzard flew overhead with something long and thin dangling from one talon. A slow-worm? Or an adder? Do buzzards take adders? I know that they take grass snakes - I once had one fly right over me whilst I was out riding, with large, still squirming grass snake clutched in its talons.