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 ...
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+).
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