DRAGONS AND DAMSELS

Tuesday 24th was a day to dry out and the insects like this small red-eyed damselfly, were out enjoying the sunshine. The best place to look for them was in the shelter of bushes and trees that were out of the fresh breeze.

Small red-eyed damselflies have become part of the park's wildlife in recent years. In fact it is hard to believe that prior to 1999, there was no population at all in Britain, until its first discovery in this country just opposite Mersea Island on the Dengie. Since those early arrivals from the continent, this dainty and delicate damselfly has become well established in many areas across southern England.

The normal place to see them at the park is out in the middle of the watercourses, like ponds, wide ditches and borrow-dykes, especially if there is some floating algae for the males to rest on.
The park dyke this year is lacking in algae and other floating vegetation, so there may not be the large numbers that there were three or four years ago.
Today the damselflies were having a stint away from the water and about ten were seen basking in the sun on some bushes, sheltered from the wind.

Here the male and female are paired up whilst mating and during the pairing, they fly around in tandem. This group won't have far to fly to the water to lay their eggs, as they were only about 30 metres away from the park pond.

Also out enjoying the sunshine were lots of migrant hawkers with about twelve seen in various corners of the park. They were regularly hawking along paths or behind bushes sheltered from the wind. Every so often they would take a break and rest in a bush hanging down from a branch.
This male black-tailed skimmer with its blue abdomen was busy hunting small flies over the long grass.
The sunshine brought out the usual butterflies with this female meadow brown basking in the morning sunshine. Many of the meadow browns are already looking very tatty with chunks missing from their wings. There was a brief glimpse of a purple hairstreak high up in the oaks.

The bird highlight was a hobby at the pond that put on a fabulous display of how to hunt dragonflies. I felt like I was at Wimbledon watching the tennis as I found myself repeatedly turning my head from one side to another, as the bird made numerous passes over the water. It was probably my best hobby show and certainly the first dragonfly-hunting to have happened here.

The bird appeared to be a sub-adult as it lacked the bright red trousers of the adult and the dark grey upperparts. It was generally a dark brown bird above with a distinctive white face and with a pale forehead. It was very agile at swooping low over the water and several times it snatched at a dragonfly with its talons, then rose back up into the air to pick at the insect in its feet with its beak. The swoops were carried out at break-neck speed which seemed to terrify the ducks and the ducklings and even the little egret perched in the tree seemed rather alarmed too.
After about 5 minutes of continual swooping and passing over the pond, the hobby headed east and high over the fields.

At dusk, the nightingale by the park entrance called out quietly whilst above it the first of many pipistrelle bats were already out hunting along the hedgerows. Several were seen above and along the East Mersea road as the light faded.
Also in the fading light a barn owl flew over the road near Weir Farm, heading northwards.