Thursley Dragons

Tuesday was a trip out to Thursley Common to top up the Dragonfly list for the year. It was hot and sunny as we left the south coast but by the time we got to Thursley it had clouded over and there was a cool breeze getting up.

We did make a quick stop over on the way to try and get Dave a Sussex Common Clubtail but we could not find any. Having first seen them just two weeks ago this suggests that the mating period when they are to be found by the river is only a couple of weeks long.

Thursley may have been cooler than we had expected but there were still a lot of Dragons and Damsels to be seen. In particular the wooden boardwalk had warmed up early and a lot of the Dragonflies were using it as a place to  bask and absorb the heat.

The pond was a bit of a disappointment though, with nothing flying around the edges. So no sign of the Downy and Brilliant Emeralds that we had been hoping to see.

First target was the Black Darter. There were a lot of newly emerged specimens to be found in the grass and reeds and a few more mature examples out on the board walk.

Black Darter - freshly emerged male

Black Darter

Black Darter

Black-tailed Skimmer

Black-tailed Skimmer

Common Blue Damselfly

Emerald Damselfly

Emerald Damselfly

Probably an immature Emerald Damselfly

Rather tatty Emperor

Female Emperor oviposting

Keeled Skimmer

Keeled Skimmer

Small Red Damselfly

And a couple of Butterflies. Nice to find a Painted Lady in good condition.

Painted Lady

Painted Lady

Small Tortoiseshell 

Black-tailed Skimmer

Apart from Thursday's trip to Ham Wall the past week has mostly seen me venturing out between showers to visit local butterfly and dragonfly sites. Returns have been poor, with numbers of both appearing to be down this year, and with clouds and cooler weather resulting in occasions when nothing much has been flying.

In previous years one of the ponds in Angmering has been good for Black-tailed Skimmers and Red-eyed Damselflies. My first visit coincided with a sudden cloud burst so I found nothing  but on the second visit a few Black-tailed were flying.

They usually favour putting down on the mud so, as below, it is not easy to get a good picture.

However, as the temperature goes above twenty five degrees they start to settle on low vegetation. I don't think we actually reached that on my second visit but I did find an obliging specimen and the pictures are in a different class.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any Red-eyed Damselflies despite seeing large numbers there in previous years. The pond now has a few very large fish although I doubt that these could have wiped out the colony completely.

Other Dragonflies seen. The one below is a bit confusing. It has yellow stripes down the legs so it is a Common Darter but I think it must be a freshly emerged male. The wings look pristine and the pterostigma are still white rather than the dark brown of a mature specimen. Picture taken at the Angmering Pond.

The next one is a Ruddy Darter (no yellow lines down the legs) and a much deeper colour than the specimen in one of last weeks blogs. This one taken at Woods Mills.

Early Commas have over wintered and usually look a bit tatty so these will be first brood having emerged early July. The closed wing shot showing the white comma that gives them their name.

Plenty of Skippers around. This one looks like an Essex.

The next a female Large

Male Large - note the large sex brands on the wings

Meadow Browns everywhere. This one a female

my first Gatekeeper of the year

Silver-washed Fritillaries in Madgeland Wood although no sign of the Purple Emperors. 

I also spent an hour or so watching Purple Hairstreaks in the top of a large oak tree at Tillets Lane Fields. No chance of a picture and this still remains on the top of my target list.

Little Bittern

I came away from Ham Wall with a list including Little Bittern, four Great White Egrets, Two Glossy Ibis, Green Sandpiper, Brown Hawker, Southern Hawker, Common Darter and Black-tailed Skimmer. Was I happy? No, not really, because the Collared Pratincole, that I had travelled all that way to see, had flown overnight.

The problem with wanting to see the rarer birds but also being twitch averse, is that sometimes you just get the timing wrong. This is the second time this year that I have left it too long and turned up the day after the bird has moved on.

Fortunately this time there was a back up target, that of getting a picture of a Little Bittern.

I had seen one earlier in the year but only for a few seconds. At the time I was sure that it was a Little Bittern but I didn't get a picture and after a few days the doubts start to creep in. Was the bill right? Did I see the white patches on its wings?  It was a life tick for me so I wanted to be sure. As such it had only been greyed in on my list and given a few more weeks, with the doubts continuing to grow, would probably have been removed. So I am trying to think positive and treat this as a life tick and now the journey seems a bit more worthwhile.

No problem with seeing the white patches on the wings this time.

They get some good birds at Ham Wall but it is not a great place for a bird photographer. You are just too far away for a decent shot. Below is one of a pair of Glossy Ibis but it is probably 300 metres away. It doesn't really compare with the one at Pett Level last December that was almost close enough to touch.

I spent most of the day standing around waiting for the Pratincole to put in an appearance so didn't really have time to photograph any other birds. However, there were a few Dragonflies that came within range.

Southern Hawker

Black-tailed Skimmer

Common Blue Damselfly

The most abundant Dragonfly was the Brown Hawker, which is always a difficult one to photograph. I tried a few in flight which all failed and I managed to spook the only one that I found settled.

It was a long way to go but it was worth it for the pictures of the Little Bittern.

Norfolk Hawker

Dragonflies seem to be in short supply in Sussex. We had another look for the Club-tailed at sites on the Arun on Wednesday but could find no sign of that or of the White-legged Damselfly. Even a quick relocation up to Thursley Common left us distinctly underwhelmed.

Strumpshaw Fenn, however, was a different story. Our main target was the Norfolk Hawker, a large brown dragonfly, with green eyes, that is found only in a small area around the fen-lands of east Norfolk. It was all very quiet when we first arrived but as the temperature increased more and more dragonflies appeared. They are very territorial, so get too many close together and it is almost impossible to get a picture. They don't settle and are constantly in skirmishes to protect their space.

Fortunately we found one Norfolk Hawker that was very obliging and gave us some good picture opportunities.

Norfolk Hawker

The only Dragonfly that you are likely to confuse with the Norfolk Hawker is the Brown Hawker, but this flies mid to late summer and does not have green eyes or the diagnostic yellow triangle on the second abdominal section.

There have been a few sightings of this dragonfly in Kent where it tends to be referred to by its name of Green-eyed Hawker which is perhaps more realistic given its largely European distribution.

We would have gone home happy with just a sighting of this dragonfly so it was great to be able to get some reasonable pictures. Our search also gave us a number of other good finds.

Black-tailed Skimmer  Immature male Scarce Chaser

Hairy Dragonflies

Scarce Chaser (female)

And, the ever present Four-spotted Chaser.

Four-spotted Chaser

Dragons and Damsels found at Thursley Common on Wednesday include

Keeled Skimmer

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Large Red Damselfly

Small Red Damselfly

And this looks like a Downy Emerald. There were a number flying but none would put down to give a chance of a picture. In the low light levels this was the best I could manage.

Downy Emerald

With the exception of the Strumpshaw Fen visit, Dragon and Damselfly encounters have been very slow so far this year. Lets hope we have now turned the corner and the next couple of weeks give me sightings of the Club-tailed Dragonfly and White-legged Damselfly. Check back for more information.