Damsel day

I decided today was a good time to brush up on the minutae of blue damselfly identification. With a sunny day forecast I headed off to a local site with at least 4 species on the wing. They are all little blue jobs, but with some effort and a good field guide, I did manage to get the hang of separating them in the end.

I learnt at least three things today:

1. I need a new pair of binoculars. My trusty Bushnell natureview 8x40 are now more than 10 years old and although I prefer to use the eco-friendly 'make do' attitude to most of my kit, I have come to the conclusion that I really do need something that will focus down to my feet, rather than 4 meters away.

2.Variable damselflies are a bugger to photograph.

3. I need a new pair of binoculars.

Luckily I already had the other essential piece of kit: "field guide to the dragonflies of britain and europe" by Dijkstra/Lewington, so at least I could identify anything I could get a good view of.

My main technique was to photograph each damsel on the FZ7 on full macro zoom, then use the review screen to look for the key id features:

- size and shape of the antihumeral stripe (top of the thorax)

- black shape on segment 2 (behind the wings)

not an ideal method, but as it happened, it did have the attraction of forcing me to get to know the jizz of each damsel just based on its size/shape and flight. The variable damselflies in particular seemed to have a very 'jerky' low flight and would not settle which made photography a tad difficult.

Common blue damselfly

- antihumeral strips thick, unbroken

- mushroom shape on S2

male

male

male

immature female (dull-form)

azure damselfly:

-antihumeral stripe thin, unbroken

-U mark on S2

male

mating pair

variable damselfly:

- antihumeral stripe is exclaimation mark

- Y mark on S2

male

male

male

male

female

female

mating pair

Dragon emergence

The first dragonflies have emerged from my new pond after only the second summer. I found the empty larva cases of 2 broad-bodied chasers and today the first male was zooming around after a female yesterday.

All that sweat and back ache now seems worth it.


male BB Chaser


empty BB Chaser larva case

Flamborough

On our annual Flamborough familiy holiday, I managed a short trip to Bempton for my annual seabird fix. 250,000-ish seabirds are still an impressive sight worth seeing each year. Just get there early before the crowds arrive and you've got it all to yourself.


best spot for close-up views of puffin and razorbill is north landing at low tide. Walk out into the bay on either side and they fly right past your head on the way to/from the cliffs. Nice cave too.


razorbills at Bempton



seabird city at Bempton - there's so much going on it's sometimes difficult to know where to look. For the second year running I spotted a gannet removing a guillimot egg from a nesting individual within range and threw it over the cliff. Probably a common occurance as their numbers expand further and take over more nesting ledges.

gannet flight shot attempts

Bempton cliffs looking east towards Flamborough head

First Dragons

A nice sunny day at last, so a short trip to a local wetland to find some of the first dragonflies of the year seemed a good idea.

Found a female 4-spotted chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata) emerging about half a meter from the water.


4-spotted chaser emerging from laval skin


opening the wings


pumping and drying wings

head shot

female ready for lift off


The main reason for the trip was to find the Hairy Hawker (Brachytron pratense). The males were hawking low down as advertised, only rarely settling for any length of time.

Noticably shorter and stubbier than more familiar hawkers and it helps they are out earlier than most other dragons. Sides green, interupted by two black lines.

Hairy Dragonfly male

Hornborgasjon

With a sunday free and rain forecast on the Swedish west coast, I headed up to Hornborgasjon.

I have given up trying to pronounce the name of this place to the locals and instead call it "Lake Hornborga", or "the place where the Tranor gather and dance in spring". With a maximum of 13,900 crances counted, it has been a very good year for them. Only in their 100's at this time of the year however.

At first sight it looks a bit like a UK wetland with the usual feral greylag and canada goose problem, but then you notice the red-necked grebes everywhere, the ospreys, displaying waders in breeding plumage, arctic terns and the odd white-tailed eagle! then there is just the shear scale of the place - 4,000hectares even on a sunday it felt like I had the place to myself.

As it happened, wader numbers were quite low due, I think, to higher water levels then usual - a few gangs of ruff, wood sandpipers and spotted redshank, but WT Eagles put in several impressive performances, its presence pointed out to me by the hysterical black-headed gull conony (amazing how such a large bird can be overlooked if not careful in such a large landscape). Several osprey were fishing and nesting and the grebes showed well.


view from the eastern side of the lake
Just another of those 4,000 hectare Swedish lakes...enough to keep a naturalist happy for a full day at least


lots of shallow "blue edge" and grazed wet meadows around the lake is thought important by the swedes and something which is often lacking in our wetlands.




pasque flower on the eastern side of the lake

On the eastern side of the lake are some limestone mounds containing some interesting flowers such as pansy and pasque flower. Also a huge colony of some kind of mining bee and the odd camberwell beauty shot by on a strong wind.




green hairstreak

Woodland surrounding the lake contained pied flycatchers, redstarts, green hairstreaks and the odd camberwell beauty. Didn't hear the wrynecks this time.


thunbergi yellow wags were everywhere




red-necked were the most common of the grebes with 10's counted from most viewpoints. Quite a few Black-necked were also about, but couldn't find the Slavonian's.



the restored Hornborgasjon with raised water levels from the western side

Spillkraka no show

wood anemones are abundent all around gothenburg, sweden


Kattugla being mobbed

During a work-related trip to gothenburg, sweden, I managed to make a trip to one of my favourite local sites - an old beech woodland. The mighty spillkraka nests here, but at this time of the year, keeps unusually quiet and without knowing which of the multitude of large cavities they are nesting in, a sighting of the big black woodpecker is difficult. This site never disappoints, however and I was richly rewarded with several Hawfinch feeding from beechmast on the woodland floor while woodwarblers spun off their song from the canopy.

Sorry, no respectable photos of the Hawfinch possible with the FZ7, but after some crafty stalking, I did manage a shot of a Tawny Owl being mobbed. The woodland floor was well populated with voles and mice, but the Pygmy Owl call I heard was probably a Jay trying to fool me. Calling back did not produce the reaction from Pygmy Owl I have found in the past.

mating arvicolas

arvicola casanova...looking for love


water vole bliss

Lots of water vole activity at the local drain. With sex on the mind, close photography was easily possible. The male seemed to perform a circuit on the water, with the odd skermish before meeting up and mating with the female. This was repeated every couple of minutes.