RXwildlife Sightings

The small shallow pools on Harbour Farm have been shrinking at a fast rate during this hot and dry spell, in one pool large numbers of Common Darter larvae have been concentrated into the remaining water and for them it has been a race againgst time to emerge. At dawn over the past few days successfully emerged adults can be found covered in dew amongst the nearby vegetation. It has been interesting to note that during the warmer mornings of summer Common Darter can go through the emergence process in 1 hour 15 minutes, in mid May it took a Downy Emerald 3 hours and 45 minutes to complete the same process.

Shrinking pool on Harbour Farm Read the rest of this entry »

It was time to start checking for Golden-ringed Dragonfly exuviae this week in Brede High Wood, and yesterday I was lucky to find two females in the final stages of emergence and still clinging to their exuvia. 

This female took her maiden flight shortly after this picture was taken.

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Highlights of an idyllic hour at this 700-year-old historic site this afternoon were a male Emperor, a male Hairy Hawker, 2 Downy Emeralds and 2 Four-spotted Chasers. All of these were seen at close range from the same point, hunting along the edge of the ancient moat. The Emperor was working hard (and unsuccessfully) to chase the others off. Supporting cast included several bright blue male Azure Damselflies and rather few White-legged Damselflies (or Blue Featherlegs, a new name I rather like) – I saw only one pale blue adult male plus about 20 immatures, compared with 60+ on the same date in 2008, but I think they might just be late emerging this year, like many other insects. A Painted Lady also appeared briefly.

A fine selection of highlights from Castle Water this morning a Bittern gave flight views from the viewpoint, 2 Green Sandpiper and a drake Garganey were out from the hide. Two male Downy Emerald gave close views patrolling sheltered bays along the footpath north from the viewpoint, Brimstone,  3 Common Blue and Small Heath were also along the path. Grasshopper and cricket nymphs were plentifull in the long grassy areas, Mottled Grasshopper and Roesel’s Bush Cricket were particularly pleasing  in miniature form. A Dark Arches moth caterpillar crossing the footpath was a nice find, they eat the stems and roots of various grasses and the adults are one of the commonest moths recorded as adults on the reserve. 

Roesel’s Bush Cricket nymph

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Emperor and Black-tailed Skimmer are now on the wing at Castle Water. Finding an Emperor female at an early stage of emergence was a bonus, as this species normally emerges during  night and takes its maiden flight at dawn. The ditch north of the hide provided lots of activity with ovipositing  Hairy Hawker and at least five patrolling males, Four-spotted Chaser were also present. Additional interest was finding another site for Parhelophilus versicolor ( pictured below) amonst the Typha stems, up untill last week there was only one record for the reserve in from 1985. 

Emerging Emperor at Castle water this morning

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The lawn in my front garden is covered in red clover, but there are surprisingly few bees on it.  This seems to be a general trend across our RX area.

The impact of the cold winter and late spring can be seen in the meadows on Dungeness at the moment.  Delayed growth of vegetation means that flowers have been slow to open, and there are even fewer bumblebees than at Northiam to feed on them.  Over the past week Read the rest of this entry »

Broad-bodied Chaser (pictured below) was a dragonfly species that benefitted from the wetland creation at Castle Water, it was one of the first species to colonise three small pools and this years cohort has started to emerge this week. The ditch north of the hide continues to be of interest with 83 Four-spotted Chaser emerging this week and 123 Hairy Hawker exuviae have been collected since late April. At least 60 Variable Damselfly were grounded and easy to count in the dull weather today. Downy Emerald emergence appears to have stopped now with a total of 19 exuviae found near the viewpoint, on warm days adults should be seen on the wing untill mid July. A Spoonbill (pictured below) also showed well from the hide perched in the willows amongst the Cormorants and with 5 Little Egret. 

Broad-bodied Chaser just about to take its maiden flight.

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After a fairly awful start to the moth trapping in May (with seven days trapping up to the 15th turning up a total of zero moths) things have picked up over the last week or so. Highlights so far have been several Ethmia bipunctella, White-point, Pine Beauty, Diamond-back moth and a Lesser Treble Bar. The last two were in this mornings catch, as was the first Great Silver Water Beetle of the month. Continuing the insect theme, the weekly butterfly/dragonfly transect was very thin on butterflies, with only one each of Small Heath and Peacock, and was saved only by quite a few Hairy Hawker still, Four-spotted Chaser, Large Red Damselfly and best of all my first Downy Emerald of the year at the northern end of Castle Water.

Lesser Treble Bar

Always plenty to find in the woodland clearings and along the tracks and paths, butterfly highlights yesterday included at least 4 Dingy Skipper, 5 Brimstone and Common Blue. Several Broad-bodied Chaser were found hunting insects and Large Red Damselflies were present in good numbers around the bridge near Holmans Meadow, Slow Worm, Grass Snake and the day flying moth Mother Shipton were also found there.

A pair of Dingy Skipper, female bottom right.

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Lots of emerging activity in the ditch north of the hide yesterday 18 Four-spotted Chaser exuviae were found in a short stretch of emergent vegetation, Hairy Hawker were also emerging with 12 exuviae found and several adults in various states of emergence.Emerging damselflies were abundant with Blue-tailed being the most common. So far 14 Downy Emerald exuviae have been found on Typha stems near the viewpoint with most activity being last weekend, the peak time of emergence for Downy Emerald and Hairy Hawker will pass in the next week. (The pictures below were taken yesterday) 

Emerging Four-spotted Chaser at stage 3

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