28 Apr 25 - Chasing The Dragon (Purbeck Style)

If you search for "Chasing the Dragon" on the internet, you will find it's a name for smoking heroin. However, the Purbeck version is a much more pleasant variation. For the past few days, I've seen a Broad-bodied Chaser hanging around my garden and being typically elusive. It took me ten years before I saw my first Broad-bodied Chaser for the Garden List and I had one or two sightings annually for the next five years. Then they appeared to die out as I had no sightings in the nine years until I saw one during the first Spring lockdown. Since then, they have been almost annual, but still just one or two sightings a year. In several of the years, I've seen them, the views have been so short, that I've had to record them as a Chaser sp. However, as Broad-bodied Chaser is the only Chaser I've recorded in the garden, then it is a fair bet only one species occurs. Finally today, I've had one perch up for several minutes by my front garden pond. I had to take some photos and I'm pleased with the results.

Broad-bodied Chaser: They are my favourite UK species of Chaser

I always think of Dragonflies as having hard external bodies. However, when you watch them at a few metres, you can see the abdomen broadening and contracting. The next two photos were taken within a few frames, so about a half second apart in time and from the same position. Note, the differences in the width of the abdomen (which is the same length in both photos).

Broad-bodied Chaser: A typical broad abdomen

Broad-bodied Chaser: The abdomen is about five percent narrower in this photo

This is only the second occasion that I've managed to photograph a Broad-bodied Chaser in the garden.

Broad-bodied Chaser: A final & closer photo before it moved on

26 May 23 - A Garden Broad-bodied Chaser

I returned home from a quiet walk around St Aldhelms, to find this stunning Broad-bodied Chaser in the garden. It was quite happy & I saw in perched up on several occasions later in the day. This is the tenth Spring out of twenty-five Springs that I've lived in Dorset, that I've seen a Broad-bodied Chaser in the garden, but it's the first year that I've had one give good views. Normally, all I see is one flying by which doesn't return.

Broad-bodied Chaser

2 Jun 22 - #30DaysWild Day 2 - Broad-bodied Chaser

I saw this male Broad-bodied Chaser on Day 2 of #30DaysWild. I find it difficult to get the exposure right to avoid overexposing the blue colouration on the male Chasers. But I'm fairly happy with this photo.

Broad-bodied Chaser: Male

8 May 22 - Broad-bodied Chaser

The highlight of a walk around Greenlands Farm this morning was this showy Broad-bodied Chaser. I also saw a couple of Hairy Dragonflies and three Large Damselflies, but they didn't settle.

Broad-bodied Chaser: Immature males & females are this golden-brown colour

30 Jun 18 - An Island Dragon

I'm sure there are plenty of early maps with Dragons on remote islands & the plan for the weekend to go Dragon hunting on an island. The sun was shining & it was baking hot. I left early to ensure I didn't get held up with traffic & arrived just after 9:15 for the 10:00 pelagic. I was due to meet mate Gav MacLean just before the start of the pelagic, but I had a last minute text that South West trains had chosen not to do joined up thinking & hold his Brockenhurst connection for a minute to allow him to join me. Better to leave 30 passengers on the platform than wait a minute for them. After handing over a small fortune I was off Dragon hunting on my own. But first there was a pelagic.

The start of the Hampshire pelagic goes past a Tern & Gull colony: Unfortunately, no golden-billed Royal Terns with them today

Hurst Castle: Given it's Hampshire it is not up to the standard of Florida's Dry Tortugas for Birding. I'm surprised that the Brexit camp haven't started refortifying it again keep the Frenchies out

The Needles: The other Western gateway to the Solent

Fort Albert: Having been completed in 1856 to help protect the Solent from attack by Napoleon III, it was obsolete soon after. However, the military didn't finally leave until 1957. It has now been converted to private flats

The pelagic was over after just 40 minutes as the ferry pulled into Yarmouth: One Gannet on the IoW side was the highlight

Yarmouth Castle cannon

It was a 2 mile walk to Bouldnor Forest, the Dragon site: Fortunately, I avoided the guarding Red Squirrels

After about 45 minutes, I arrived at a clearing in Bouldnor Forest & started looking for the Dragonfly pools. There were a number of medium to large interesting looking pools surrounded by knee high vegetation. I spent an hour looking around them. However, they were far too open to be the pools I was interested in. My target for the day was the recently arrived Southern Emerald Damselfly. They were first found in Norfolk in 2002 & have been recorded at a few sites on the East coast of East Anglia & Kent. I was discussing with my mate Edge about looking for them this year in Kent & Edge said they had recently been discovered at a site on the Western end of the Isle of Wight. He was planning to go over with Gav this summer. Unfortunately, Edge wasn't available this particular weekend. Gav was still up for going & with two of us heading over, our chances of seeing them would be increased by having more eyes looking. Pity South West Trains had other ideas. We didn't have a lot to go on other than local Dragonfly photographer Peter Hunt's excellent Blog http://isleofwightdragons.blogspot.com. This is a great blog with lots of good photos of the Island's Dragonflies & other wildlife. The blog showed photos of the two heavily overgrown breeding pools that Peter had seen the Southern Emerald Damselflies around. It was Peter's photographs of the Southern Emerald Damselflies that allowed a sharp-eyed Dragonfly records officer at the British Dragonfly Society to identify them as a new species for the Isle of Wight in 2017. Subsequent checks through Peter's photographs confirmed that they had been present since 2015. Unlike the Kent & Norfolk populations of Southern Emerald Damseflies which are best looked for during the school holidays, the IoW ones are on the wing in June. So it was getting towards the end of their season, especially given how hot & dry the last few weeks have been.

Emperor Dragonfly: Female egg laying

Broad-bodied Chaser: Male

Blue-tailed Damselfly: Female. Thanks to Peter Hunt for correcting me on the identification of this as a female Blue-tailed Damselfly & probably the rufescens form (which I misidentified as a teneral Emerald Damselfly)

Water Strider: This is the largest UK Pond Skater & favours still water

Water Strider: Their large size & the presence of two upturned spurs at the end of the abdomen makes this easier to identify than most of the other Pond Skaters. Only the left hand spur is visible in this photo

Interesting as the pools were with many Dragonflies, I knew I still had to keep looking to find the right pools.

The smaller of the two pools: Virtually dried up so I assume that Southern Emerald Damselflies are able to lay eggs which can survive for a number of months without water

Finally, I stumbled on the smaller of the two pools, just as Gav was arriving after catching the ferry an hour after my ferry. Gav headed off to check the other pools. I carried on looking & soon after found the other pool with somebody else there. Not surprisingly it was Peter Hunt who had arrived between Gav & myself, but he had gone straight to the breeding pools. I called Gav over as Peter had seen one individual, but when we looked it had moved on.

The larger of the two pools: Even more dried up. I guess being able to survive until the next rains fill the pools up helps to cut down the competition for food & being eaten by other Dragonfly larva

Southern Emerald Damselfly: My initial view

Southern Emerald Damselfly: Getting better. The two-tone pterostigma are one of the features for Southern Emerald Damselflies

Southern Emerald Damselfly: The wings are typically held at 45 degrees to the body. Note, the reddish colouration in the wings is purely the way the light is catching the wings

Southern Emerald Damselfly: Close up showing the pale sides to the thorax & the pale patch at the back of the head which are also important features

Southern Emerald Damselfly: Close up of the two-tone pterostigma (Emerald Damselflies have uniform dark pterostigma)

Southern Emerald Damselfly: The second individual

Southern Emerald Damselfly: Close up of the head & thorax

Southern Emerald Damselfly: The second individual

Southern Emerald Damselfly: All Dragonflies & Damselflies are amazing close up. You wouldn't want to meet them if you were a small Insect

Southern Emerald Damselfly: At last a better photo

Southern Emerald Damselfly: Close up of the head & shoulders markings

Southern Emerald Damselfly: Close up of the two-tone pterostigma

It had been a good day trip seeing my last regularly breeding English Dragonfly. I have just got to see Dainty Damselfly if they get pinned down again, all the the Scottish Dragonflies & a few more vagrants.

Southern Hawker: Male perched up along the track back to the road

I had expected the pelagic back was going to be pretty quiet, so the lure of a coffee & cake got the better of me after several hours in the strong sun. However, as the final photo showed it threw up a surprise find.

I didn't expect to see a Jackass type Penguin as we left Yarmouth

3 July 14 - A 30 Year Reunion With A Fritillary

Having seen the Norfolk Hawkers at Westbere, it was a 10 minute drive to East Blean Woods to look for Heath Fritillary. There is a small car park at the Eastern end of the wood. Some people had recently seen the Heath Fritillaries around the car park. So I had a quick look. No joy, but a nice female Broad-bodied Chaser.

Broad-bodied Chaser: Female. Note, the broad brown bases to all wings, the lack of a dark spot half way along the leading edge of all wings & the yellow spots to the sides of the abdomen

I followed the main path from the car park & within a few hundred metres, entered a coppiced clearing. As soon as I got to the sunny part of the clearing, I saw my first Heath Fritillary. In the end, I saw at least 8, but they were all charged up given how sunny it was. I had forgotten about how small they were, appearing even smaller than a Marsh Fritillary.

Heath Fritillary

Heath Fritillary

It was good to see a couple of White Admirals, albeit they weren't very cooperative for photos.

White Admiral

There were a few Common Blue Damselflies in the clearing. 

Common Blue Damselfly: Male

Common Blue Damselfly: Male 

Common Blue Damselfly: Female

Common Blue Damselfly: Female

Having got some reasonable Heath Fritillary photos, it was time to start the journey back to Dorset.

10 June 14 - Sand Lizards

It's getting into the Summer doldrums for birds locally at the moment. But living in Dorset, there is never a quiet time, providing you are happy to look at other wildlife. There are so many diverse lowland habitats locally, which means providing the weather is OK, your always going to see something of interest. This would be even more true, if I could get interested in flowers, but I've never got beyond Orchid photography. But I've always had an interest in wildlife that moves, starting with Butterflies & Amphibians when I was a kid. Now I'm happy to look at most other groups, especially where there are good field guides to help me with identification. Today I had the chance to have a quick look at the DWT reserve at Higher Hyde today, near Bovington. This was my first visit, but it won't be my last. Near to the car park is a reasonable sized lake & hide (or should that be hyde?).

The Higher Hyde lake

This is only a short walk from the car park & en route there was this very showy male Broad-bodied Chaser.

Broad-bodied Chaser: Male. The broad body, yellow-orange edges & dark bases to the wing rule out the other Chasers

Following the Broad-bodied Chaser, I came across a great use for old tyres. I guess they heat up quickly being black.

Sand Lizard: Male. I had to get a new tyre recently for the car. It had various classifications of energy efficiency, water clearance, but I don't remember a Lizard rating

Sand Lizard: Female (au naturale)

6 June 14 - Dragons & Dungeons

The forecast is not looking hopeful for the weekend, so I decided to get out today with the camera in the breezy & intermittently sunny conditions. I had only got as far as the car, when I saw the first thing of interest. It was a Hercules flying low over Nine Barrow Down towards Studland. Presume it's tied in with the D-Day 70th celebrations as Studland Bay was used for some of the live firing rehearsals.Today is the 70th anniversary of Normandy landings.

Hercules: Flying low over Nine Barrow Down towards Studland. Low flying Hercules are fairly regularly seen locally, but that's something for a future posting

There have been no follow on sightings of the Short-toed Eagle up to when I left the house, so I decided that I would have a look around the Lulworth Ranges as that was the last direction it was seen flying in when it left Morden Bog. I didn't expect to relocate it, but it was a good excuse to have a look around the area. There is a public road from East Lulworth to Kimmeridge which provides excellent views of the Lulworth Ranges, however, part of this road is often closed as the Lulworth Ranges & the coastline to the South are part of a military training ground. But I figured it would be open as there wouldn't be any training on the 70th anniversary of D-Day. Parking up in a layby gave me a great view over the tank training grounds.

Looking over the Lulworth Ranges: There is some great looking heathland in the distance, but no sign of any Eagles (much to the relief of the local Snake population)

Old tanks never die: A few lucky ones end up at the nearby Bovington Tank Museum, the best Tank Museum in the world, but many end their days here

Another tank skulking in the bushes

Looking West is Lulworth Castle: Not a real Castle, just a early 17th Century Hunting Lodge & Stately Home. I guess it hasn't got any dungeons

Corfe Castle: Now this is what I call a proper Castle & I'm sure it has some real dungeons (Nov 13)

Looking North East is Poole Harbour: This is the Wareham Channel & the Arne Peninsula to the right

Sika Deer

Sika Deer

Sika Deer

Sika Deer: I had suspected these might have been Fallow Deers, but thanks to Richard Webb who confirmed they were Sikas

Next stop was Holmebridge in the Lower Frome Valley to look for Dragonflies. This is a great area of water meadows with access via a public footpath, but I quickly realised it was also a great day for grass pollen & I quickly started suffering from a bad hay fever attack. I persisted for a couple of hours, before finally having to give it up. But there was a good selection of Dragonflies & Damselflies on view.

Small Tortoiseshell

Peacock Caterpillars: I don't find caterpillar identification easy, so let me know via the Comments if I've got this wrong

Hairy Dragonfly: Female

Golden-ringed Dragonfly: Female. The female has slightly different gold rings to the male & a long pointed ovipositor

Broad-bodied Chaser: Female. The broad abdomen & dark bases to all 4 wings makes this an easy Chaser to identify

Banded Demoiselle: Male with the strikingly easy to identify banded wings. There were a few here, but generally pretty mobile

Large Red Damselfly

Azure Damselfly

Azure Damselfly: Mating pair

I find identifying the small blue Damselflies difficult as you need to look for the shape of the black markings on the second segment of the abdomen (counting from the head end) & that means getting a reasonably good view. Then there is the really tricky bit of being able to remember which markings belong to which species. In Dorset, we have to worry about 3 species: Azure, Common Blue and Southern. There is a possibility of Variable also occurring, as they are found in neighbouring Wiltshire & Hampshire, but currently the previous historical records have been rejected.

Azure Damselfly: The shape on the second segment is an U shape

Common Blue Damselfly: The shape on the second segment looks like a head & neck sticking out from the black base line (Stocker's Lake, Herts, June 2012)

Southern Damselfly: The shape on the second segment is an the most complicated. I think of it as a Viking with the big horned helmet and standing with legs together (Dorset, July 2012)

Chrysotoxum bicinctum: A good looking Hoverfly

I returned home to find one of my local Bullfinches pairs has had the first fledged juvenile. I get frequent daily visits from at least 2 pairs of Bullfinches (bribery with black Sunflower seed really works with them). I always happy when I see this cracking bird as they are one of my favourite UK Birds. Although they are happy to feed at the feeders within a metre of the kitchen door, they won't come in if the kitchen door is open. So I ended up having to photograph through the window.

Bullfinch: Juvenile. Superficially they are like the females, but they do not have the dark cap of the females. This youngster also seems to have that dazed look that I've seen on a few recently fledged birds (Phew I just managed to get a Bird into the post)