27 Nov 14 - Insect Photospot3 - Dorset Dragonflies

Following on from the Butterfly Photospots, then now is a good time to look back on my other big Insect passion this Summer: the Dragonflies. I've really enjoyed looking at the Dragonflies & Damselflies. I have been looking at Dragonflies for the last few years now, after initially dabbling with the first Dragonflies back in my university days for a few years. However, it is only really this year that I think I've really got a good grasp on their identification features & I have been generally able to recall the features from memory, without having to dig out the field guides. I have still got a long way to go to get more knowledgeable, but it has been fun improving my knowledge significantly this year. So here is a Photospot on the Dorset Dragonflies. I will cover Dorset Damselflies & Demoiselles in another Photospot. Both Photospots are designed to give the readers an appreciation of the variety of species that can be seen, rather than focusing on the identification. There are plenty more photos of these species as well as useful identification features in earlier Posts: just click on the Label links on the right hand side of the Blog.

Emperor Dragonfly: Female egg-laying. This is one of the larger Dragonfly species & can be commonly found in Dorset over Summer

Living in Dorset is a real privilege as it is one of the best counties for seeing  Dragonflies on your doorstep. We have such a good selection of heaths, clean rivers & freshwater lakes that allows a great variety of species to be seen. They are not always straight-forward to identify, but that's part of the fun. Having a camera is one of the best ways to help identify them as it is a good idea to get some photos & then compare them against the book. The photos taken before Oct 13 were taken with an inexpensive Lumix camera, whereas the photos taken after that date were with the Canon 7D and usually a 15-85 Macro lens, although some of the more distant shots were taken with the 400mm f5.6 lens.

Banded Demoiselle: Male. The Demoiselles will be covered in the next post. An out of county photo from Goring-on-Thames (13 June 14)

There are a couple & inexpensive of excellent field guides to get you started:-
The Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Great Britain and Ireland by Steve Brooks and Richard Lewington
Watching British Dragonflies by Steve Dudley, Caroline Dudley and Andrew Mackay
Both of these field guides provides excellent identification sections for each species as well as some cracking illustrations. A few of the vagrant species are not covered in the latter guide, but it has a lot of good site directions and species to help you find all of the regular UK species.

Common Blue Damselfly: The Damselflies will also be covered in the next post

One thing I have learnt this year, is it a good idea to get photos from as many different angles as possible. So while a top down view will provide a good in focus photo, it might not provide all the features. Often a side view of the thorax & abdomen is important to get & sometimes a face on view is also needed. The other good thing about photos taken with a good digital camera, is it allows some of the key features to be quickly zoomed up on the back of the camera to see those fine details, that might not be as easy to see in the field. Most of the Dragonflies & Damselflies are approachable with care, although some of the Hawkers can be really challenging to get a perched photo. The other good thing is like the Butterflies, you can often get some good photos with a relatively cheap digital camera, providing it can cope with close focus. Then you just need to learn how to get close without flushing your subject.

Southern Hawker: Adult with the larval case. Swanage (11 July 14). I was surprised to find this species egg-laying in moss next to my garden pond. I had assumed most species would lay their eggs in the water, but it seems this species lays eggs near to ponds & the eggs don't hatch until the following Spring. I guess the larva quickly move to the water at this point

Common Hawker: Despite its name this is not a common species in Dorset. I have seen it on the heaths around Studland, but failed to find any this year to photograph. It's always good to have a target for next year

Brown Hawker: Longham Lake (18 Aug 12)

Migrant Hawker: Male. This was one of the commoner Hawkers I saw this Autumn in Dorset and despite its name it breeds in Southern England (7 Aug 14)

Migrant Hawker: Female. South Haven, Studland (25 Aug 14)

Emperor Dragonfly: Bestwall (19 June 14)

Golden-ringed Dragonfly: East Holme Water Meadows (6 July 14)

Vagrant Emperor: I was lucky to hear this vagrant had gone to roost on a fence panel of one of the Weymouth Birders. Well worth twitching as I've not heard of any since in Dorset. Weymouth (11 May 11)

Hairy Dragonfly: This is easy to identify as it is the first of the Hawkers to fly. Soldiers Road, Hartland Heath (18 May 14)

Hairy Dragonfly: Mating pair. East Holme Water Meadows (12 July 14)

Downy Emerald: Morden Bog (26 May 13)

Downy Emerald: Studland (14 May 14)

Black-tailed Skimmer: Male. Brownsea (21 June 14)

Keeled Skimmer: Male. Greenlands Farm, Studland (3 Aug 14)

Keeled Skimmer: Female. Godlingston Heath (1 June 14)

Broad-bodied Chaser: Male. Higher Hyde (10 June 14)

Broad-bodied Chaser: Female. East Holme Water Meadows (6 July 14)

Four-spotted Chaser: Brownsea (21 June 14)

Scarce Chaser: Male. East Holme Water Meadows (12 June 14)

Scarce Chaser: Female. East Holme Water Meadows (12 June 14)

Black Darter: Rempstone Forest (3 Aug 14)

Ruddy Darter: Higher Hyde (11 July 14)

Ruddy Darter: South Haven, Studland (10 Sep 14)

Red-veined Darter: The only one I have seen was this individual at West Bexington (13 July 13)

Common Darter: As the name suggests this is a Common species which flies in the second half of the Summer & will typically carry on until the end of October or sometimes even later for the occasional individual. Arne (11 July 14)

Common Darter: I have covered the identification pitfalls between Common Darters & Red-veined Darters in this post. Rempstone Forest (3 Aug 14)

Additionally, Lesser Emperor & Yellow-winged Darter have occurred as vagrant Dragonflies in Dorset. I have been lucky enough to see Lesser Emperor at Longham Lakes in Aug 12 & Yellow-winged Darter at Holt Heath in 1994. I wasn't really into seeing Dragonflies for the latter species, but I'm glad I was persuaded to go & look for them, given how rare they are.

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

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)