More dragonfly guides

I've said before that, when it comes to field guides, I like to have more than one guide, ideally one with photos and one with drawings. Very often different guides complement each other, so having multiple guides can be very useful. Also, I like to see the 'bigger picture', seeing what species occur just outside the area covered by the main guides.

When it comes to butterflies, I've got several guides now, including one which covers the whole of Europe (see here, here, and here if you want to see details of these). But when it comes to damselflies and dragonflies, I just have one guide. Clearly, balance needed to be restored!

For seeing that 'bigger picture', I got the Field Guide to the Dragonflies of Britain and Europe, which has photos as well as drawings by Richard Lewington.

The laminated card I got for butterflies has proved to be a very useful aide memoire, and easy to put in a backpack if you can't take 'full' field guides, for whatever reason. So I got something similar for dragonflies. This RSPB ID Spotlight card includes the 42 more common species. Illustrations are, yet again, by Richard Lewington.

The final dragonfly book I got isn't really a field guide. The Atlas of Dragonflies in Britain and Ireland contains a lot of information on their ecology and conservation status and, as such, is a valuable source of additional information; not a book you'd take with you into the field, though.

In terms of field guides, I'm as prepared as I can be now for identifying butterflies, damselflies and dragonflies in the field this coming season; bring on spring!

Garden list 2020

We're well into October now, and I've seen only a small handful of butterflies in the garden this month (a large white, a small white and two speckled woods, to be precise). So it's extremely unlikely I'll see any butterfly species new to the garden between now and the end of the year. So let's take stock of the 'garden species' for 2020!

For context, we have a very small patch of garden in front of the house, which my wife turned from a pretty sterile square of grass into a wild flower meadow last year. Especially the Verbena proved attractive to butterflies.

Our back garden is a bit bigger, and has a Buddleia as the main butterfly magnet. 

This speckled wood posed on a Rhododendron leaf, and I must admit I'm pretty chuffed with this picture; probably my best butterfly photo. There's some tension in the picture, almost as if the butterfly is just about to launch itself from the leaf ...

But, without further ado, here's our butterfly garden list for 2020, with a rough indication as to how often we saw each species.

For a small back garden, and an even smaller front garden, seeing 16 species isn't too bad, I think. 

When it comes to damselflies and dragonflies, the list is pretty brief: I just saw a single large red damselfly in June this year.

Unless you also count our resident pair of 'rusty hawkers' ...

Back to butterflies, depending on how you count, Britain has around 64 species which either breed here or are regular migrants, so that means we saw about a quarter of all British species in our small garden this year. Certainly sets a benchmark for future years!

New Forest pools and ponds

Yesterday, we visited a few streams in the New Forest, today it was the turn of a few pools and ponds. 

Dibden Bottom in the morning. An ovipositing female common darter at one of the pools, and a female southern hawker patrolling the boggy heathland nearby, and being very accommodating in posing for us. 

Hatchet Pond (the small one, not the more popular large one nearby) in the afternoon. Several common darters (one ovipositing tandem), and a male migrant hawker. One other dragonfly whizzed past so fast we couldn't identify it. It was definitely smaller than a migrant hawker and my wife thought she saw some blue; black-tailed skimmer possibly? Unfortunately, we didn't see it again ...

No butterflies at all today, and looking at the forecast tells me this may well be the last butter/dragonfly walk this year .... The final table (one  = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+)?

New Forest streams

The weather was gorgeous this morning, even though chilly and a bit windy. We decided to walk along a few steams in the New Forest, hoping to catch some late dragonfly activity. 

From Cadman's Pool we walked to Holly Hatch Brook and followed that for a while.

About 25-30 common darters, mostly males, but also a few single females and a few ovipositing tandems.

Then we crossed over Hollickshole Hill to Latchmore Brook ...

... and more common darters.

In-between Alderhill and Sloden Inclosures we walked back to Cadman's Pool. First few butterflies (speckled woods) ... 

... and about half a dozen migrant hawkers patrolling up and down along the forest edges.

Tables are pretty simple after today (one  = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+).

New British butterfly guide

When it comes to field guides, I really like to have more than one, and ideally one with illustrations and one with photos. When I came across this Britain's Butterflies guide a little over two months ago, the web-site stated that a new edition was about to be published, so it was worth waiting a bit to get the latest edition.

This butterfly guide is from the same series and publisher as the dragonfly guide I got earlier, and it's just as packed with relevant information. Excellent addition to the butterfly library!

Southampton Common

We live about ten minutes walk away from Southampton Common, and when the weather was really nice over the last few weeks, I popped over a few times during my lunch break, and see what I could quickly spot in terms of butter, damsel, and dragonflies. Rather than document each of these 'pops' separately, I decided to combine them into one blog post.

Although butterflies are clearly on the way out, Ornamental Lake still had some dragonfly activity. 

Many common darters, some in ovipositing tandems, and several migrant hawkers chasing each other. One was kind enough to pose until I got a good picture (thanks!). Plus two damselfly species, one of which (blue-tailed damselfly) was a new one for me!

I managed to get hold of a recent list of damsel/dragonflies seen on the Common, and that suggested we should easily be able to see a few new species next year.

Three tables this time (one  = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+).

Veldgids dagvlinders

When googling for butterfly guides, I stumbled across this Veldgids Dagvlinders ('Field Guide Day-Butterflies'), published in Dutch in the Netherlands. Now it so happens that Dutch is my mother tongue ...

It covers northwestern Europe: Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, northern France and the British Isles. Having different guides is never a bad thing, as they often complement each other. Plus I like to see the bigger picture.

But what made me decide to order this guide is that it has identification keys to all species groups, and that's something I've not seen in any other butterfly guide. So a welcome addition to my small but growing butterfly library.

Stokes Bay

Today turned out to have an unexpected butterfly dimension .... One of our other hobbies is sport kite pair-flying and team-flying, and we were at Stokes Bay, Gosport, flying with the other members of our L-katz team, something we quite often do on Sundays (check out our web-site if you want to know more about our pair- and team-flying).

During a break for coffee, I noticed some movement from the corner of my eye ...

... a clouded yellow flew across the field! Aided by the wind, it flew too fast for me to get my camera, but it was unmistakable. New species for my wife, new for Britain for me (I'd seen them in the south of Europe many years ago). Here's the customary table:

Hillier Gardens take 2

Today looked to be beautiful day, so we decided to go back to Hillier Gardens, this time with the focus on dragonflies. And we were prepared this time: my dragonfly guide arrived! Britain's Dragonflies is really bursting with relevant information, and I especially like the tables comparing similar species.

There are a few larger and smaller ponds at Hillier Gardens, and we went round them a few times.

Common darters were definitely the most common species, at larger and smaller ponds, and at the largest pond we saw a few emperor dragonflies as well as several migrant hawkers (a new species for us!). I read on a web-site somewhere that the best way to 'do' dragonflies in the field is to let them come towards you. And that really proved to be true today. Whereas with an unknown butterfly you can sometimes chase after it, hoping it will settle, chasing a dragonfly is a complete waste of time and energy; they're way too fast for that. So, indeed, sit or stand at a good spot and wait.

Of course, the large pond also had its resident metal dragonfly sculpture ...

While checking out Centenary Border for butterflies, we saw several migrant hawkers and a single emperor dragonfly hunting; they're clearly not tightly bound to the water.

Despite similar weather conditions to those on our visit almost a month ago, we saw far fewer butterflies (four species compared to ten last time). The end of the butterfly season really is approaching fast .... Here are the tables for both butterflies and dragonflies (one  = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+).

Crockford Bottom, New Forest

We decided to pretend I've still got annual leave, so off we went walking again, this time to Crockford Bottom in the New Forest.

This was also the first time we were specifically looking for dragonflies, even though the field guide I ordered hadn't yet arrived. So we were 'flying blind' so to speak, especially as internet signal in the New Forest can be very patchy. 

First dragonfly we saw stumped us, as it didn't look like any of the pictures I'd seen before setting out. Took a photo to see if we could figure it out at home (sorry for the bad quality; phone camera had trouble focusing), but that didn't get us very far either ... Common darter???

The aea was rather boggy, with various larger and smaller ponds. Some other ponds had mostly dried up.

We saw common darters at several ponds, and the final pond had a single female emperor dragonfly ovipositing. So two dragonfly species today, both new to us!

In terms of butterflies we didn't see many species, but it was nice to see a few more graylings disappearing. Two tables this time (one  = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+).

Update 7/9/2020: I joined the British Dragonflies and Damselflies Facebook group upon coming home, and posted the photo of the 'mystery dragonfly' there. The verdict was that it was an old female keeled skimmer, and that means we saw three new species; I've updated the table.

Getting 'into' dragonflies?

When we visited Itchen Valley Nature Reserve last month, we saw a banded demoiselle. And that made me ask myself which damselfly and dragonfly species I'd actually seen before in my life?

I definitely remember seeing blue and red damselflies in the past, and some years ago, when we were having lunch near a stream in the New Forest, we saw what we later could identify as a southern hawker. 

But definitely the most memorable encounter with a dragonfly was almost exactly three years ago at Stoney Cross Plain in the New Forest: this golden-ringed dragonfly landed on our bag. It was clearly at the end of its life, as it allowed me to pick it off our bag and let it crawl onto my hand.

Isn't it a gorgeous beast?

So that's a grand total of four damsel/dragonflies .... And that again made me think 'why not combine looking for damselflies and dragonflies with looking for butterflies'?

Unlike with butterflies, where I was already familiar with the ten or so common and 'showy' species, we'd be starting from almost complete scratch with damselflies and dragonflies. 

Field guide duly ordered!

Pamber Forest

The final butterfly trip of my annual leave, and another mature woodland: Pamber Forest

It really was a lovely day, with a decent amount of sunshine, but we saw very few butterflies.

Even though the speckled woods were still going strong, it really feels like the end of butterfly season .... (one  = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+).

Kingley Vale

Our annual leave butterfly trips are nearing the end. Kingley Vale today.

Lovely walk through mostly mature forest. Many meadow browns on the more open pastures, and many speckled woods in the more closed forest. The woodland looks like it would be good for species like white admiral and purple hairstreak, but that's for next year maybe.

Not butterfly-related, but the gnarly ancient yew trees are just fantastic ...

The more open parts also look like they will have a good selection of grassland butterflies (blues, etc), but very few plants were still flowering, so, again, that's for a future visit.

The customary list of the butterfly species we saw (one  = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+).