28 June 14 - The Moral Of Not Carrying The Book

After some help from my mate Kevin, I was off to try another site on Dorset's River Stour. This is further upstream on the site tried on the 23rd for White-legged Damselfly & near to the large village of Sturminster Marshall. After driving through the large village of Sturminster Marshall, the road crossed the Stour next to the White Mill. There is a small National Trust car park here. Walking upstream & away from the Mill, for about 50 metres brought me to a path leading to the river bank. Very quickly, the path opens up into the first of several fields alongside the river bank. This is the site for the White-legged Damselflies. There are a lot of Stinging Nettles alongside the river as well as areas of other plants & bushes, but the vegetation in the first field had been severely strimmed. There were excellent numbers of Banded Demoiselles along the full length of the main river bank with about 10 or so Scarce Chasers in the first field & an Emperor Dragonfly hawking over the river. The path then carried in into a couple of short grass Cow fields. The Stinging Nettles along the riverbed edge of the fields were good for Banded Demoiselles, but little else.

Looking downriver along the main river bank

Looking upriver along the main river bank

Little Egret: Closer to the Mill. Once a national rarity, now a common sight in Dorset

Mallard: Male entering its dull eclipse plumage which they adopt during their moult phase (when the replace their feathers)

By the entrance into the first Cow field, there is an alternative path into long, thin sided field of rough grass with a sloping bank alongside an overgrown ditch. There were about 6 Common Blue Damselflies & one White-legged Damselfly in the long grass in this field. Despite checking the book before I left the house, I ended up failing to appreciate the potential confusion of the immature female Common Blue Damselfly (which look different from the mature blue females). As a result, I ended photographing a couple of Damselflies, thinking they were White-legged Damselfies, which I later reidentified as Common Blue Damselflies (when I checked the photos against the book). I did manage to see & photograph a real White-legged Damselfly, but the photos aren't as good as they would have been, had I realised my error at the time: as I would have spent longer photographing it. Still I always think you learn, & more importantly remember, more by making these mistakes. It also shows the importance of having a camera to get some photos of these insects to be able to check all the features. 

The side field: This looked more interesting habitat & I did finally see one White-legged Damselfly in the long grass, with a couple of immature female Common Blue Damselflies

Common Blue Damselfly: Male. Nice & easy to identify as lots of blue on the abdomen and the head & shoulders marking on the second segment (which separates it from the other small blue Damselflies)

Common Blue Damselfly: Immature female Common Blue Damselfly. Mature adult females would still be as bright blue as the males. They have this missile like marking on their abdomen and crucially some white on the legs

Common Blue Damselfly: Another photos of the immature female Common Blue Damselfly. Again note the white on the legs

White-legged Damselfly: The legs are more white, the tops of the eyes are blue & the pterostigma markings are light brown (black on Common Blue Damselfly)

The Scarce Chasers & the Banded Demoiselles were dominating the main river bank. The Scarce Chasers were very active and rarely settled. When they did settle, they would fly at the slightest movement even several metres from them. When they met another male, both would go an impressively fast vertical climb for about 20 metres, in an attempt to other climb each other.

Scarce Chaser: Male. Due to the angle of this photo it's not possible to see the black base to the hind wing. However, the lack of yellow-orange edges to the sides of the abdomen & the dark pterostigma still confirms it is a Scarce Chaser

Scarce Chaser: Male. This tatty male shows how limited the black on the hind wing is the Scarce Chasers here 

Scarce Chaser: Male. Finally a head on view

Banded Demoiselle: Male

Banded Demoiselle: Female. We think they look great, the Bug this female is eating wouldn't have agreed they are anything other than dangerous predators

Banded Demoiselle: Female. I couldn't resist a final photo

The sunny conditions were also good for Butterflies. There were reasonable numbers of Small Tortoiseshells, a few Red Admirals & Meadow Browns & a Green-veined White.

Green-veined White

Red Admiral

Red Admiral: They become a lot more cryptic when they close their wings up

Small Tortoiseshell: Although not as common as they were when I was a kid, this species seems to be around in better numbers than recent years

23 June 14 - The Search For White Legs

Returning from the New Forest, gave me the opportunity for a small diversion to the River Stour near Throop Mill to look for White-legged Damselflies. I managed to see them about this time of year last year, but hadn't been able to get any photos. So I was hoping for more success this time. Walking down past the Mill leads to a bridge over the Stour where there were a few birds.

Mallard: Chick - aaah. Mum was too close to fit in the 400 mm lens, but she was nearby keeping check on the youngsters

Moorhen: Adult enjoying the sun

Moorhen: Juvenile already independent from the parents

Black-headed Gull: Adult

There are good numbers of Dragonflies & Damselflies on the river visible from the footbridge next to the old Throop Mill. I saw a couple of White-legged Damselflies here last year on waterside vegetation, but no sign today. I'll need to get some better directions as to the best place to look. But there were a number of other species present including a Scarce Chaser and good numbers of Banded Demoiselles, Red-eyed Damselflies & Blue-tailed Damselflies.

Scarce Chaser: Male

Banded Demoiselle: Male

Red-eyed Damselfly: Male. To separate this from Small Red-eyed Damselflies you need to see the lower side of segment 8 which appears black, but it isn't easy to see in this photo. Fortunately, you can also see the top of the thorax is dark with no stripes (which Small Red-eyed Damselflies would have) 

Red-eyed Damselfly: Mating pair

Blue-tailed Damselfly: Adult. Females have a number of different coloured bodies including black, green, orange or violet as well as the same turquoise blue of males (or green of immature males)

Blue-tailed Damselfly: Teneral. Teneral means they have recently emerged & haven't yet adopted the full colours of the adult. In this case, you can see it's a teneral Damselfly by the pale pink, instead of turquoise blue on the segment 8

Meadow Brown: I always know it's Summer when I see Meadow Browns flying

Finally, a welcome to the new readers of this blog in Tanzania. You are my 64th country to read the blog & only the third in Sub-Saharan Africa (along with The Gambia & South Africa). Hope you like it.

12 June 14 - Chasing The Chaser

This was my third visit to Holmebridge, just outside the edge of the Poole Harbour area, in the last 2 weeks. I've been hoping to see Scarce Chaser, but had no success so far. Perhaps they hadn't emerged & started flying on the earlier visits. So it was a case of third time lucky on this visit with a female seen first.

Scarce Chaser: Female. The dark central markings on the abdomen, vivid colouration & the dark wing base on the hind wing are all diagnostic for this species

Scarce Chaser: Male. The black end to the abdomen, lack of yellow-orange edges & dark base to the hind wings are diagnostic 

Scarce Chaser: Male

Hairy Dragonfly: Mating pair

Holmebridge is the site of the Civil War skirmish of Holmebridge. Wareham like most of the Dorset towns had come out on the Parliamentary side. However, the Purbeck area was divided as the nearby Corfe Castle, owned by the Bankes family, had sided with the King. Wareham changed hands on more than one occasion during the Civil War and it was recaptured by Parliamentary troops in November 1643. On 27 February 1644, a force of about 300 Parliamentary troops met 45 Royalists at the bridge. A five hours fight ensured and only ended, when additional Royalist reinforcements arrived. The Parliamentary forces retreated, leaving 40 soldiers dead along with 1 dead Royalist officer.

The old Holmebridge: The old bridge was stone topped with parapets, but the sides were removed during the war to allow tanks to cross. Brick was used to rebuild the top once a replacement Bailey bridge was added to allow tanks to cross the river

The new Holmebridge: This modern bridge was built in 1963 to replace the Bailey bridge