Back to Old Moor, which now seems to have become a new stamping ground for me, I can’t complain, on the cards today of course were the Damselflies and Dragonflies, hopefully toady we can find the elusive Small Red eyed Damselfly.
Slight chance on route this morning, I went left out of the car park instead of the usual right, left would take me along the stream and not onto the reserve, I was looking Demoiselles’ and Darter’s, alas none were found, viewing the stream however was made difficult due to the high vegetation now. What I did see however was a large Fritillary type Butterfly, thought it was Comma at first but it looked too big and bright in appearance, it reminded me of Silver washed Fritillary, but I couldn’t prove this as it wasn’t see again to confirm, but an exciting moment.
Back on the reserve and my first stop today was the sensory garden, where I found a few Azure Damselflies and some Mason Bees. On at the visitor centre pool, there were more Azure Damselflies along with Blue tailed Damselflies. I moved on then to the stepping stones pond, where there were Common Darters and Four spotted Chasers.
On at the next pool were a few more Four spotted Chasers, it was a bit crowded so I moved swiftly on and headed towards the Bittern Hide path where I got buzzed by a Emperor Dragonfly, and it settled on the grass verge near the path, one of the places to look for this species. I followed it, slowly coming up on it, and managed to take a few photos before it took flight, I may have over done it. My last stop before dinner was the Toyota pond where there were Emperor Dragonflies, Four spotted Chasers, Azure and Red eyed Damselflies but not the hoped for Small Red eyed.
After dinner, I headed back to the Toyota pond again, but stopped at some umbellifers as an insect had drawn my attention, it turned out to be a Ichneumon wasp (Ichneumon sarcitorius). On at the pond, nothing new this time, same as before , so I moved on to the Green Lane Loop. On the loop then I found, Emperor Dragonflies, Four spotted Chasers, Common Darters and a Male Black tailed Skimmer. Whilst I was down this end, I called into the Wath Ings hide to view the Spoonbill, which on finding it was doing what Spoonbills do, sleeping.
Getting back to the Toyota pool, for look number four, it looked to be more of the same species as before. I decided on looking thru the Red eyed Damselflies and taking photos of each to look thru properly, as picking out Small Red eyed cand be difficult, then I got one a Small Red eyed Damselfly, Male too, finally seen one
Dragonfly List : Azure Damselfly, Black tailed Skimmer, Blue tailed Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly, Common Darter, Emerald Damselfly, Emperor, Four Spotted Chaser, Red eyed Damselfly, Small Red eyed Damselfly.
Ichneumon sarcitorius
Emperor Dragonfly
Spoonbill
Small Red eyed Damselfly
Huddsbirder 