RXwildlife Sightings

Many female Emperor dragonflies were laying their eggs at Castle Water this morning, although mentioned on a previous post 4th july, better pictures were taken through the telescope.

A few Peacocks around today, the one pictured was at the Viewpoint at Castle Water along with a good selection of other butterflies. The pattern of eyespots make it one of the most easily recognized and best known species. The Peacocks nomadic instincts and strong flight lead it to range widely, its preferred habitat being woodland clearings.

Click here to read last month’s wildlife report.

I photographed this fly yesterday in the Rother Valley. I was unable to get a close up, but it has been identified for me as a Stratiomyidae species ‘Odontomyia ornata‘. It was feeding on what I believe is Hemlock Water-dropwort (Oenanthe crocata). It is a Red Data Book (RDB) fly and is one of the few purely freshwater rarities that is confined to grazing levels.