I haven’t been able to visit the RSPB reserve at Minsmere since February so it was good to reconnect, even if only virtually and to hear how the expansion of the nuclear power plant at Sizewell is threatening to seriously affect this, the single reserve with the most diverse habitats in the UK.
Archive for the ‘Dragonflies’ Category
Minsmere Revisited
Posted: November 30, 2020 in Birds, Butterflies and Moths, Dragonflies, Insects, Mammals, Natural History, Reptiles and Amphibians, Suffolk, UKTags: Minsmere RSPB
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Sevenoaks and friends
Posted: July 16, 2020 in Birds, Butterflies and Moths, Dragonflies, Kent, Natural History, UKTags: Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve
On Monday Sue and I travelled down to Sevenoaks Nature Reserve to meet our friends Keith and Elaine for a, socially distanced, picnic lunch. It was the first time we had been able to meet up this year. After lunch Keith and I went for a walk around the reserve.
Photo by Keith
Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs provided most of the musical accompaniment as we searched each of the lakes that make up this reserve. Although the number of bird species present was low (not surprising at this time of year) we managed 6 species of Butterfly and 5 species of Dragonfly. it was a lovely summer afternoon and a lovely walk around the lakes.
Brimstone 
Red Admiral 
Damselfly 
Grey Heron 
Comma
London Wetland Centre -June 2020
Posted: June 26, 2020 in Birds, Butterflies and Moths, Dragonflies, Natural HistoryTags: London Wetland Centre
Our first trip out in 10 weeks (except for shopping) was a couple of hours at Bough Beech near Sevenoaks. As we arrived a Cuckoo departed and was not seen again, apparently, we had also just missed a Red Kite. The reservoir was fairly quite. By the evidence of the number of young Grey Herons present, the local heronry had experienced a good breeding season.
But the stars of the trip were 5 species of Dragonfly including one male Brilliant Emerald, only my second sighting in the UK. This local species is only found in West Kent and Surrey and in 2 areas in West and North East Scotland.
And so January passes into February
Posted: February 4, 2020 in Dragonflies, Natural HistoryTags: Migrant Hawker
Where did January go? Suddenly we are one month down in 2020. Before we know it the Butterflies and Dragonflies will be back with us.
Some pictures of Migrant Hawker Dragonflies at London Wetland Centre of Tuesday
Naturelog: 27 August
Posted: August 28, 2019 in Birds, Butterflies and Moths, Dragonflies, London, Natural History, UKTags: Little Ringed Plover, London Wetland Centre, Migrant Hawker
One of the hottest days of the Summer saw Keith and I at the Wetland Centre in West London in the hope of finding some migrant birds. As it was there seemed to have been little evidence of migration with just an early morning report of a Whinchat, which I don’t think was relocated during the day. There was plenty to see however with numerous dragonflies and plenty of butterflies, even if the latter was restricted to 2 species. We also saw a Little Ringed Plover and a Common Lizard.
Migrant Hawker 
Migrant Hawker
Little Ringed Plover 
Little Ringed Plover
Grey Heron 
Canada Goose [sp] (Branta canadensis)
Greylag Goose [sp] (Anser anser)
Mute Swan (Cygnus olor)
Egyptian Goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca)
Northern Shoveler (Spatula clypeata)
Gadwall [sp] (Mareca strepera)
Mallard [sp] (Anas platyrhynchos)
Eurasian Teal (Anas crecca)
Common Pochard (Aythya ferina)
Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula)
Grey Heron [sp] (Ardea cinerea)
Great Cormorant [sp] (Phalacrocorax carbo)
Common Moorhen [sp] (Gallinula chloropus)
Eurasian Coot [sp] (Fulica atra)
Northern Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus)
Little Ringed Plover [sp] (Charadrius dubius)
Common Snipe [sp] (Gallinago gallinago)
Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus)
European Herring Gull [sp] (Larus argentatus)
Lesser Black-backed Gull [sp] (Larus fuscus)
Rock Dove [sp] (Columba livia)
Common Wood Pigeon [sp] (Columba palumbus)
Great Spotted Woodpecker [sp] (Dendrocopos major)
Rose-ringed Parakeet [sp] (Psittacula krameri)
Western Jackdaw [sp] (Coloeus monedula)
Carrion Crow [sp] (Corvus corone)
Eurasian Blue Tit [sp] (Cyanistes caeruleus)
Great Tit [sp] (Parus major)
Sand Martin [sp] (Riparia riparia)
Eurasian Reed Warbler [sp] (Acrocephalus scirpaceus)
Eurasian Wren [sp] (Troglodytes troglodytes)
Common Starling [sp] (Sturnus vulgaris)
Common Blackbird [sp] (Turdus merula)
European Robin [sp] (Erithacus rubecula)
European Greenfinch [sp] (Chloris chloris)
European Goldfinch [sp] (Carduelis carduelis)
Dragonflies
Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans)
Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella)
Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta)
Brown Hawker (Aeshna grandis)
Ruddy Darter (Sympetrum sanguineum)
Butterflies
Small White (Artogeia rapae)
Speckled Wood [sp] (Pararge aegeria)
Common Lizard
Yesterday I published some pictures of Common Darter and mentioned a similar species, the Ruddy Darter, so I thought today I would publish some pictures of that species for comparison.
The Common Darter is one of our commonest Dragonflies and can be easily seen as it has the habit on warm days of resting on fences and on pathways, where it can take up the heat.
It has a mixture of Red and Yellow on the abdomen and this distinguishes it from the similar Ruddy Darter which has a darker red body with no yellow. It is found across most of the UK and flies between June and September, although it has been recorded in all months except January to April.
Naturelog: Saturday 12th September 2015
Posted: June 21, 2019 in Birds, Butterflies and Moths, Dragonflies, Insects, Natural History, Reptiles and AmphibiansTags: Buzzard, Common Lizard, Marsh frog, Migrant Hawker, Moorhen, Wasp Spider
The reserve was relatively quiet bird-wise with the highlights being a small passage of House-martins and a juvenile Buzzard, which unusually was laying on the ground. I heard it had been around the reserve for a couple of days and had been harassed by the resident crow population, so perhaps it just wanted to keep out of sight.
Lets settle this here and now!
Migrant Hawker
Marsh Frog
Wasp Spider
Common Lizard
Mute Swan (Cygnus olor)
Egyptian Goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca)
Gadwall (Anas strepera)
Mallard [sp] (Anas platyrhynchos)
Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata)
Eurasian Teal [sp] (Anas crecca)
Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula)
Little Grebe [sp] (Tachybaptus ruficollis)
Great Crested Grebe [sp] (Podiceps cristatus)
Grey Heron [sp] (Ardea cinerea)
Great Cormorant [sp] (Phalacrocorax carbo)
Common Buzzard [sp] (Buteo buteo)
Common Moorhen [sp] (Gallinula chloropus)
Eurasian Coot [sp] (Fulica atra)
Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus)
European Herring Gull [sp] (Larus argentatus)
Lesser Black-backed Gull [sp] (Larus fuscus)
Common Pigeon [sp] (Columba livia)
Common Wood Pigeon [sp] (Columba palumbus)
Rose-ringed Parakeet [sp] (Psittacula krameri)
Great Spotted Woodpecker [sp] (Dendrocopos major)
Eurasian Magpie [sp] (Pica pica)
Western Jackdaw [sp] (Coloeus monedula)
Carrion Crow [sp] (Corvus corone)
Great Tit [sp] (Parus major)
Eurasian Blue Tit [sp] (Cyanistes caeruleus)
Common House Martin [sp] (Delichon urbicum)
Cetti’s Warbler [sp] (Cettia cetti)
Eurasian Reed Warbler [sp] (Acrocephalus scirpaceus)
Common Starling [sp] (Sturnus vulgaris)
European Robin [sp] (Erithacus rubecula)
Common Chaffinch [sp] (Fringilla coelebs)
European Greenfinch [sp] (Carduelis chloris)
Large White (Pieris brassicae)
Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)
Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta)
Emperor Dragonfly (Anax imperator)
Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum)
