Hot and sunny (it was already 28°C at 09:45 peaking at 31.6°C by 15:00). A light but freshening east breeze.
Middleton Nature Reserve
Pete scanned from his car in the bottom car park 09:15. This method of checking only allows views of the eastern half of the pond, nevertheless:
Two male lesser emperor and at least 12 red veined darter (three in tandem) in quick check from car park
The Lesser Emperors not allowed to settle by patrolling Emperors
I did a circuit at 10:30 (Malcolm). By that time there were dragonflies everywhere, with Emperors covering all the sections around the banks. I didn't try to count any as everything was so mobile. But I managed one glimpse of a male Lesser Emperor and there were at least 12 male Red-veined Darters.
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| Male Red-veined Darters |
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| Male Broad Bodied Chaser |
South shore - Malcolm 13:30 - 15:45
It was hot, very hot! The tide was out and the breeze from the east. These are ideal conditions to attract insects in off the sea here. But things didn't look promising, there were just a handful of butterflies in the Nature Park and walking out along the sea wall saw only the following come in off the sea:
Red Admiral 3
Painted Lady 3
Small Tortoiseshell 3
Small White 2
But when I reached the end of the wall the reason was obvious. The breeze was coming from the other side of the Power Stations and the bulk of the insects were heading to the north side of the Power Stations. Including Dragonflies.
A two minute check from the lighthouse saw 7 Small White and 3 Painted Lady come in off.
There were at least 30 each Small White and Painted Lady plus 5 Red Admirals in the brambles between the lighthouse and waterfall.
Four species of Dragonfly!
Blue Emperor 1 male resting on the inner wall surrounding the roundhead scrub.
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| Location of Emperor circled |
Black-Tailed Skimmer 1 male in the scrub
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| Male Black-Tailed Skimmer |
Red-veined Darter 2 males and 3 females - all but 1 male in the scrub
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| Male Red-veined Darter between the lighthouse and waterfall |
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| This male is in the scrub. This stance is called the obelisk pose to minimise the amount of sun hitting the dragonfly to prevent overheating |
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| Two of the females |
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| Also cooling down with the obelisk pose |
But the breeze was picking up, thankfully, and maintaining the pose wasn't easy!
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| Red-veined Darter catching the sea breeze |
Norfolk Hawker (probably). This one by elimination only. A larger duller dragonfly came in off but didn't settle and continued east. The size, shape, colour and lack of obvious marking were right for a Norfolk Hawker and there isn't really anything else it could have been.
Other stuff
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| One of two Ruby Tiger caterpillars along the sea wall |
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| Adult and juvenile Black-Headed gull on No.2 outfall |
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| Adult Mediterranean gull on the beach by the wooden jetty |
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Brunswick Road Heysham today - escaped Chukar? |
