Preparing for Dragonfly Day at Paxton

Today is our Dragonfly day at Paxton Pits reserve with walks in the morning and afternoon - thankfully in cooler conditions according to the forecast. Yesterday we did short walks in the heat just to check on what is around. Certainly the Migrant Hawkers are the stars with their stationary hovering as well as frequent perching but there are Brown Hawkers, Common and Ruddy Darters and some Damselflies on the wing as well as some incomers this year such as the Lesser Emperor and Southern Migrant Hawker though with a reserve as large as Paxton, sightings cannot be guaranteed!! Plenty of other insects if the flying conditions are right such as the Beewolf Wasp.

Guided Walks – Dragonfly Day – Paxton Pits Nature Reserve

New Species for My Garden List

To ensure that I spent at least some time clearing the area round my pond today rather than photographing the inhabitants, I locked my camera in a cupboard till after lunch. Even visits from Common Darter and Southern Migrant Hawkers to the garden were ignored while I tackled the excess vegetation around the pond. In the afternoon, I settled down for a couple of hours recording the life in the pond now much easier to access. No Dragons but there was a Willow Emerald Damselfly, lots of Wasps and Bees plus Pond Skaters and Trypoxylon attenuatum Slender Wood-bore Wasp. The Wasps were mainly Europaean Paper Wasps Polistes dominicus - a first record for my garden and obviously breeding somewhere nearby from the amount of activity.

The first pond skater image rivals any Shakespearean tragedy with the Pond skater standing over and about to stab its victim  (a Pond Olive).

Paxton Pits Macro Day

Ten RPS Nature Group Members together with four Volunteers from Paxton Pits Reserve enjoyed a surprisingly varied selection of wildlife photography considering the recent ongoing hot arid conditions. We started in one of the large Meadows which was full of Grasshoppers, Crickets, Damselflies though very few Butterflies but we soon needed to find a shady spot along one of the trails where we could watch Darters and Dragonflies from the cool shade of the trees. After a welcome drink and lunch back at the visitor centre, some of us braved the Bee-wolf site which was busy with female wasps carrying in bees, trying to remember where their predug burrow was. I was also pleased to record Astata boops, the Shield-bug Stalker Wasp (without Shield bug unfortunately), a new record for the site I think and such a wonderful latin name.

Everyone appreciated the cool of the hides and a lot of time was spent trying to capture the Migrant Hawker in flight, Brown Hawker laying and also the birdlife (images to follow)

Paxton Egrets, Swans, Geese and Darters

Little White Egret, Canada Geese, Mute Swans and Common Darters taken from the Cobham Hide on Sunday afternoon from the hide at Paxton.

Dragonfly (and Butterfly) Walk at Paxton

August's official Butterfly and Dragonfly Survey has been moved to Tuesday when it looks warmer and sunnier but five of us did the walk as planned yesterday and saw a large number of  white butterflies (mainly Small White we thought) and occasional Meadow Browns and one Small Copper but nothing settled for long. The Dragonflies were more obliging with several Brown Hawkers in the air and several Migrant Hawkers both flying and perched in the hedges. (Flight shot taken in afternoon from hide). All the darters we looked at turned out to be Common Darters. Otherwise a good variety of impressive flies and Grass-mimicing Bugs and Moths. ID sheet at end.