Our mid-summer trip to Hatfield Forest is becoming an annual highlight, and this year's trip was as good as it gets. David has a great write-up with his usual excellent photos.
Its a several hour constant search for anything that flies. Consequently we saw hundreds if not thousands of insects of various kinds, mainly Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns. But we saw the specialities; a shout from Mike and a Purple Emperor was flying straight at me! Its purple sheen showing beautifully as it drifted by. We had lots of Silver-Washed Fritillaries, Purple Hairstreak, Painted Lady, Marbled White ,Comma, Brimstone as well as the usual ones. We got White-legged Damselfly sedately flying round its chosen hot spot, more damselflies, then after a coffee we headed for the Decoy Ponds.
The ponds were just alive with Odonata. Brown Hawker, Emperor, Four-Spotted Chaser, Broad-Bodied Chaser, Large Red-eyed Damselfly, then a brief sighting of Norfolk Hawker. It's not surprise to see one here and I believe this wasn't the first record. But it was our first record and it disappeared before the others could get onto it. We waited a while, then Mike had it briefly, then waited another while, and found it over a reed bed opposite. And whilst we were watching a Grass Snake slithered its way along the opposite bank, head up out of the water.
It was a mystery to me why, when every other dragonfly was happily charging up and down, this had been so hard to see. But as we watched it it seemed that whenever it strayed too far from the reedbed the Emperor would go and beat it up. So for reasons of self preservation it was spending a lot of time perched up.
Clearly it is finding a way of coping as not only is this species spreading but wherever it goes it soon seems to become a well-represented creature.
A classic day. There really isn't a better way to spend a hot summer's day than hunting insects with your mates.
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| Silver-Washed Fritillary |
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