My copy arrived today, so the old odometer will be off the Happy scale for a while, as I contentedly scour graphs, maps, tables, phenology, distributions, trends, species accounts et al.
Tuesday, 3 June 2014
The good book
Last Friday, 30th May 2014, saw the official publication of the latest 'Atlas of Dragonflies in Britain and Ireland'. This odo-tastic tome has been five years in the making, is an update of the previous 1996 version and represents much hard work by volunteers, recorders and BDS staff.
My copy arrived today, so the old odometer will be off the Happy scale for a while, as I contentedly scour graphs, maps, tables, phenology, distributions, trends, species accounts et al.
My copy arrived today, so the old odometer will be off the Happy scale for a while, as I contentedly scour graphs, maps, tables, phenology, distributions, trends, species accounts et al.
Monday, 2 June 2014
My dragonfly year finally kicks off
I spent the last week of May in Perthshire, with Our Lass, my brother and his wife. As well as enjoying the area's novel features like big, leafy trees, the weather was generally milder and calmer than Orkney, so hopes were high of a little odo action to kickstart 'my' flight season.
Damselflies had already been reported elsewhere on Orkney, Large Reds emerging from a sheltered pond on or about the 13th of May, so I reckoned that it was high time I saw some... anywhere.
I had a stroke of luck when we visited the Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve at Loch of the Lowes. We were there principally to watch the pair of nesting Ospreys and possibly catch a glimpse of a Red Squirrel. The Ospreys had carried out a changeover of egg-incubating duties and things were a bit quiet, so we were scanning around to see what else was happening. In a brief pause, when I lowered my binoculars, an insect fluttered skywards from the reeds in front of the hide. Cue turmoil in the hide as Yours Truly tried to follow the flight path up into the trees.
Yep, it was a damselfly, but lacking any distinguishing colours, as it was very immature and this was its maiden flight. Several more were then seen clambering up reed stems, but IDing them was impossible as the reeds were swaying in the breeze and light levels dropped as clouds covered the sun.
We checked behind the hide, in case any had decided to roost nearer ground level, but found none. I quickly went to the car and retrieved my camera to record any sort of shot that might help with ID. I asked the reserve staff if any Odonata had been reported, but their Sightings board was bereft of dragons and damsels. Hmmm, if I was in England, first ode of the season would normally be Large Red Damselfly. Would the same hold true for this Scottish site?
This is the 'best' picture I managed, not all that helpful, but my best guess is a male Common Blue Damselfly, judging by the pattern of the black markings. All that grey should turn to blue as it matures. There's a broad antehumeral stripe on the thorax and the merest hint of a 'mushroom' shape on the second segment of the abdomen. CBD, surely?
A few days later, on the warmest, sunniest day of the holiday, we went to Keltneyburn, another Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve. Odonatological interest centred on a pond in the middle of Balchroich Meadow, but even within just a few paces of the car park, we were seeing Large Red Damselflies in huge numbers. By the time we reached the pond, there were teneral individuals making their fluttering maiden flights at a rate of ten a minute. Mature damsels were in tandem, or in cop, or ovipositing. It was a riot of red raunchiness and possibly the most LRDs I've ever seen in one place, at one time.
Here's a Large Red Damsel, perched on a small red damsel (my sis-in-law).
And another one, saying it with flowers.
The following day, we returned home to Orkney. However, en route, we called in at a couple of sites near Loch Garten. Time was short, as we had a ferry to catch*, so we were oh so fortunate to see another 3 species.
White-faced Darters were emerging from a small bog pool and fluttering away to nearby trees to harden their wings and colour up.
Here, a W-fD is in the quiescent stage, halfway out of the larval skin and very vulnerable to predation.
This is a slightly more mature male White Face, the orange markings yet to turn a deep red.
Both of these Garten sites held Four-spotted Chasers and Large Red Damselflies, but the second site, a large pond, is a superb water body for Northern Damselfly.
This is a gorgeous male, showing the 'ace of spades' mark on the second segment of the abdomen. This is apparently variable and not to be treated as diagnostic but, in my opinion, the other blue/black damsels that might possibly share the site can be eliminated from enquiries by their thoracic and abdominal markings: Common Blue = much wider antehumeral stripe on thorax and only one black side stripe; Azure = 'U' shape on second segment of abdomen.
So that's my 2014 flight season up and running. The next mission is to see some dragons on Orkney.
* except I thought the ferry left and hour earlier than it actually did, so I cheated myself out of 60 minutes of odo ogling. Doh!
Damselflies had already been reported elsewhere on Orkney, Large Reds emerging from a sheltered pond on or about the 13th of May, so I reckoned that it was high time I saw some... anywhere.
I had a stroke of luck when we visited the Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve at Loch of the Lowes. We were there principally to watch the pair of nesting Ospreys and possibly catch a glimpse of a Red Squirrel. The Ospreys had carried out a changeover of egg-incubating duties and things were a bit quiet, so we were scanning around to see what else was happening. In a brief pause, when I lowered my binoculars, an insect fluttered skywards from the reeds in front of the hide. Cue turmoil in the hide as Yours Truly tried to follow the flight path up into the trees.
Yep, it was a damselfly, but lacking any distinguishing colours, as it was very immature and this was its maiden flight. Several more were then seen clambering up reed stems, but IDing them was impossible as the reeds were swaying in the breeze and light levels dropped as clouds covered the sun.
We checked behind the hide, in case any had decided to roost nearer ground level, but found none. I quickly went to the car and retrieved my camera to record any sort of shot that might help with ID. I asked the reserve staff if any Odonata had been reported, but their Sightings board was bereft of dragons and damsels. Hmmm, if I was in England, first ode of the season would normally be Large Red Damselfly. Would the same hold true for this Scottish site?
This is the 'best' picture I managed, not all that helpful, but my best guess is a male Common Blue Damselfly, judging by the pattern of the black markings. All that grey should turn to blue as it matures. There's a broad antehumeral stripe on the thorax and the merest hint of a 'mushroom' shape on the second segment of the abdomen. CBD, surely?
A few days later, on the warmest, sunniest day of the holiday, we went to Keltneyburn, another Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve. Odonatological interest centred on a pond in the middle of Balchroich Meadow, but even within just a few paces of the car park, we were seeing Large Red Damselflies in huge numbers. By the time we reached the pond, there were teneral individuals making their fluttering maiden flights at a rate of ten a minute. Mature damsels were in tandem, or in cop, or ovipositing. It was a riot of red raunchiness and possibly the most LRDs I've ever seen in one place, at one time.
Here's a Large Red Damsel, perched on a small red damsel (my sis-in-law).
And another one, saying it with flowers.
The following day, we returned home to Orkney. However, en route, we called in at a couple of sites near Loch Garten. Time was short, as we had a ferry to catch*, so we were oh so fortunate to see another 3 species.
White-faced Darters were emerging from a small bog pool and fluttering away to nearby trees to harden their wings and colour up.
Here, a W-fD is in the quiescent stage, halfway out of the larval skin and very vulnerable to predation.
This is a slightly more mature male White Face, the orange markings yet to turn a deep red.
Both of these Garten sites held Four-spotted Chasers and Large Red Damselflies, but the second site, a large pond, is a superb water body for Northern Damselfly.
This is a gorgeous male, showing the 'ace of spades' mark on the second segment of the abdomen. This is apparently variable and not to be treated as diagnostic but, in my opinion, the other blue/black damsels that might possibly share the site can be eliminated from enquiries by their thoracic and abdominal markings: Common Blue = much wider antehumeral stripe on thorax and only one black side stripe; Azure = 'U' shape on second segment of abdomen.
So that's my 2014 flight season up and running. The next mission is to see some dragons on Orkney.
* except I thought the ferry left and hour earlier than it actually did, so I cheated myself out of 60 minutes of odo ogling. Doh!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)