Scarce Chaser

Tuesday was a bit of a mixed day. Good in that for the first time this year we saw Dragonfly and Damselfly in decent numbers. Bad in that we did not find our target, the Club-tailed Dragonfly.

We spent most of the morning on a detailed search of just over a mile of the Arun river bank from New Bridge near Billingshurst up as far as the old mill. It was interesting, we found Hairy Dragonflies, various Damselflies, exuvia hanging from vegetation, and a variety of insects that I am still trying to identify. What we didn't find was any sign of the Clubtails. I have a bad feeling about this. Last year I spent at least five days searching various stretches of the river without even a sniff of a clubtail. Do they still survive on the Arun?

What did we find? A freshly emerged Scarce Chaser in lovely condition and fortunately for us reluctant to fly.

Large Red Damselflies - my first of the year.

Azure Damselflies

Male and Female Banded Demoiselle

Common Blue Butterfly - another first for the year

And finally a Mayfly, or what I have always known as a Mayfly, freshly emerged and hanging out to dry.

Reading up on them I see that Mayfly is the common name for the group of insects  Ephemera vulgata with fifty one species known in the UK. Facinating to read that these were one of the first winged insects. Fossils have been found dating back over 300 million years, well before the dinosaurs. Hmmm... - a little bit more research and this could be the start of another list!


But back to the Clubtail. I cannot face another year of dipping this Dragonfly so the next good day and it will be a trip up to Goring-on-Thames and a search around the railway bridge. Look out for the next Blog.

Brilliant Emerald

My last photograph of the day. It wasn't the Club-tailed Dragonfly that I had been looking for, but I was more than happy to find this Brilliant Emerald. It was on the northern side of the new Stopham Bridge and it wasn't in an easy location to photograph.  I tried a few flight shots but it was just too fast for me.

It did eventually land and I managed to get the shot above but this involved leaning out over some deep water to get the angle and in so doing putting some expensive camera gear at high risk. I would have liked more pictures but fortunately it flew before I had a chance to do something stupid.

The day had started at Pulborough Brooks with a stop to check the heathland pools. The sun had been forecast for 0900 but when I arrived at 11.30 it was still overcast and there were only a few damselflies in the air.

Azure Damselfly

I searched the bushes around the top pool and found a couple of female Darters resting up and waiting for the sun to appear. I wasn't too confident on the species at the time but checking the books at home these were Ruddy Darters.

Female Ruddy Darter

With the sun then putting in a brief appearance I managed to find a couple more on the Black Pool but this time with males in attendance. These are not showing the deeper red of a mature specimen so have probably only recently emerged.

They are easily confused with the Common Darter but commons would be showing yellow stripes along the legs.

Male Ruddy Darter

Black Pool also had a good quota of the Four-spotted Chasers, probably the easiest of all the dragonflies to photograph.

Back up the hill to the top pool and I was fortunate to find a pair of Emperor Dragonflies, the female ovipositing and the male appearing to be keeping guard on her.

Female Emperor

Male Emperor

 Or perhaps he had been a busy boy as a second female then appeared. This one with a notch in its left forewing and with different colouration, showing more green in segments one and two, and more extensive brown markings on the other segments. 

I am aware that the blue/green markings on both male and female are temperature dependant but this is the first time I have noted the colour difference on two specimens flying together.

Female Emperor showing green colouration

Other insects of interest on the day, a Large Skipper and a Silver Y moth, both of which were first sightings of the year for me.

Silver Y Moth

Large Skipper

I had only gone out for a couple of hours to try out a new lens so was quite happy to be going home with a decent selection of Dragonfly shots.

Four-spotted Chaser

I have spent a couple of days and have walked a good few miles of river bank already this year looking for the more unusual dragonflies and in particular the Club-tailed Dragonfly. There have been a couple of sightings on the Arun and I know where to look for them, or at least I thought I did, but so far nothing. There have been a few possibles at a distance but nothing that I could photograph or really be certain about.

Instead I have had to fall back on some of the more common and more easily photographed species. In particular the Broad-bodied and Four-spotted Chasers. At least they put down occasionally and allow you to get a bit closer.

Four-spotted Chaser

Broad-bodied Chaser

I am hoping that it is just everything being a bit late this year. The eastern side of the country has been cold and very windy for a couple of weeks now but with the sun coming out and the temperatures going up, things should start to improve. It is odd though, that the much smaller and weaker flying Damselflies seem to be about in good numbers.

Common Blue Damselfly

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Blue-tailed Damselfly in teneral state just after emerging

Azure Damselfly

Common Blue Damselfly

Common Blue in mating heart

I am not sure on the one below. I think it is probably a Common Blue female.

Dragonfly hunting has been a bit disappointing so far and with spring seeming to be squeezed into shorter timescales this year I am running out of time to see all my targets.

Damselflies

I had a late start today and ended up visiting a number of local sites. The objective was to see a Common Cuckoo. This was really driven by seeing the Great Spotted Cuckoo at Portland earlier in the week and then realising that I was yet to connect with a common this year.

For a bird that has such a distinctive call and often perches out in the open during the breeding season it is proving surprisingly difficult to find this year.

As far as the objective goes it was unsuccessful. I heard three possibly four Cuckoos but did not manage to see any of them. Nor were there many other birds around. Fortunately I had taken the macro lens with me and I did come across a few Damselflies although strangely not a single Dragonfly. 


Banded Demoiselles were the most common. Nature produces some amazing colours and the metallic blues and greens on these insects are truly stunning.

Banded Demoiselle - male

Banded Demoiselle - female

There were a few "blue" Damselflies around but the only one I managed to photograph was this Azure

Azure Damselfly

 and there were also a few Large Reds

Large Red Damselfly

Butterflies were much in evidence with Orange Tips, Peacocks, Red Admirals, Brimstones, Tortoiseshells, and a variety of whites on the wing.

Green-veined White

The Cuckoo will just have to wait for another day.

Mostly Dragonflies

On Wednesday I was determined to have a break from butterflies and to get back to birding. There are still a lot of the common birds, that for some reason, I have failed to see so far this year. A report on SOS by Bernie Forbes listed Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plovers, and Sand Martins amongst other things and these would all be year ticks for me. Armed with the big lens for a change I headed off to Pagham Harbour for a look. My first stop was the lay-by at the Ferry Pool. As I opened the car door I was greeted by a cloud of Gatekeeper Butterflies. Impressive given that I had only seen my first one of the year the day before. Then as I walked in on the footpath there was a Dragonfly sitting in the middle of the footpath. It was red and with it down on the ground I had great hopes of a Common Darter, but closer inspection revealed black legs so it was yet another Ruddy Darter.

Gatekeeper

The ferry pool was a little disappointing. All the birds were distant and whilst I could make out the summer plumage Spotted Redshank I could not see enough to identify the Common or Green Sandpipers or the Little Ringed Plovers. Church Norton and the North Wall were also very quiet. The only picture I took was of a juvenile Swallow waiting patiently, and in the time I was there unsuccessfully, for its parents to feed it. They seemed more intent on encouraging it to take to the air and find its own food.  I think there were probably a couple of Sand Martins around but in flight it was difficult to separate them from the juvenile Swallows.  

Juvenile Swallow

Next stop was Chichester Gravel Pits. Possibly a Tern, or a Sand Martin or perhaps a Hobby hawking over the lakes. No, just more butterflies and loads of Dragonflies and Damselflies.

Azure Damselfly

Azure in tandem prior to mating

Black-tailed Skimmer

Black-tailed Skimmers - in the rough and tumble of mating

Black-tailed Skimmer

Four-spotted Chaser

Female oviposting probably an Emperor or a Common Green Darner

Not exactly a successful days birding but enjoyable all the same. The only consolation is that the bird sightings pages suggest that no one else is seeing much in the way of avian life either.

Wood White

There may not have been many opportunities for bird photography over the past couple of days but the butterflies have more than compensated.

As I was up at Iping Common looking for Tree Pipits and Woodlarks I decided to head over the border into Surrey to visit Botany Bay Wood in the hope of seeing Wood Whites. I did not attempt to count them but just along the main ride there must have been thirty to forty of them flying. I was also pleased to find that they are an easy butterfly to photograph. They do not seem to be concerned by a close approach or by the odd bit of gardening to give a better shot.

Wood White

Much darker markings on this one

There were also dozens of a little orange moth flying which I later identified as a Speckled Yellow Moth.

Speckled Yellow Moth

The rides also had lots of Brimstones and for a change they seemed to be settling to feed regularly giving plenty of picture opportunities.

Brimstone

On the way home I called in at Kithurst meadow. I already had lots of shots of the Duke of Burgundys but I wanted a Small Blue and I knew they had been seen there. I struggled to find one at first but then someone suggested that I look outside the meadow on the bank by the side of the road and sure enough there were two specimens out there.

Small Blue

Small Blue

I also found a Dingy Skipper. Not unusual  except that that this is the first shot I have taken of one with closed wings.

Dingy Skipper

And a Damselfly which I am reasonably confident in identifying as a Variable Damselfly which would be a first for me. I got it wrong, its an Azure Damselfly, wishful thinking on my part.

Variable Azure Damselfly

A couple of other Butterflies spotted the next day. The first is a Speckled Wood at Park Copse Pagham Harbour. Nothing unusual in the butterfly but the lighting is good.

Speckled Wood

And an Orange Tip taken just north of the Black Rabbit.

Orange Tip

The Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary is the next butterfly on the list.