Notes on nature : dragonflies

A walk on the wild side

Katie Fuller — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:57:00 GMT

Like so many other people, my interest in birds stems from watching them in my village garden when I was a kid.

I spent hours and hours glued to the window, seeing what was coming and going. I hung feeders on the washing line, much to my mum's annoyance. Blue tits, blackbirds, robins, house sparrows... and I remember the excitement I felt when I saw something out of the ordinary - a flock of long-tailed tits, a goldfinch or a fieldfare, and on one occasion, a tree sparrow! My heart skipped several beats.

Birds were my first love, but in more recent years, I've strayed and become interested in other creatures, too. That's why I went for a walk along the River Great Ouse, not far from The Lodge.

At first glance, this particular stretch of river doesn't look anything special. The Great North Road is close by, with lorries bustling past, so it's not peaceful. This path isn't well-worn; the nettles and cow parsley try to reclaim what is rightfully theirs. But those plants are all-important here. This is the land of the scarce chaser, a rare and beautiful dragonfly.

Scarce chasers are - as their name fails to suggest - not as rare as they used to be. It's only a few years since they sneaked into Bedfordshire along the Great Ouse, and this is one of the best sites to see them. I started with grand plans to walk a few miles along the bank. On a humid spring morning, we saw a total of 45 in less than half a mile! No need to go any further...

After up to two years spent as a fierce, ugly larva, on the riverbed, they emerge in mid-May as bright orange beauties. For me, they're at their most beautiful then; later, the males turn powder-blue and the females darken. The chasers perch on the nettles and stems, basking and hunting. They fly into the air and snatch small insects, returning to their perches to munch their meals (you can hear them!).

As if the glorious dragonflies weren't enough, this riverbank holds more attractions. Banded demoiselles. Thousands of 'em. They flit and flutter among the nettles, chasing, resting, feeding and displaying. I remember seeing these damselflies when I was a child; I watched them skip over the surface of the Nene and wondered what kind of butterfly they were. Now I know...

Though I'm getting better at some insects, I know next to nothing about plants. Or fish. The ones we saw in the river near the lock were whoppers! They must have been 18 inches long, and sported appendages on their chins - they were barbel. Ten-pounders. Or so I was told. Big, bottom-feeding fish. So there's something else for me to learn about...

I think that's what I like about nature: there is always something new to learn or see.

What do you think?

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Just add water for wildlife

Katie Fuller — Wed, 13 May 2009 09:21:00 GMT

It's almost a year since we dug a pond in our garden - with the wholehearted blessing of our conservation-friendly landlord.

What a year it's been. I only wish I'd done it earlier.

There was hard work initially, when we dug a hole measuring 3.5 m x 2.5 m, and 0.75 m deep (about 11' 6" by 8' 3" by 2' 6") into the claggy, clay soil. And I can't say I want to repeat the accidental experience of touching a slug that was hiding under a clod of earth... yuck!

But there was a quick and gratifying pay-off after less than a day, when the first pondskater appeared. And again, two weeks later, when two beautiful dragonflies - a broad-bodied chaser and a four-spotted chaser - turned up and started fighting. What was once boring lawn is now prime insect real estate!

Through the summer and into the autumn, our modest pool was visited by a variety of dragonflies and damselflies, a small frog and some newts. I didn't know anything about newts before we got the pond done. Now I'm... slightly more knowledgeable.

Newt in my backyard

Some of ours turned out to be not just your normal, smooth newts, but extra-special, frilly great crested newts - the ones that bring building developments to a screeching halt. They're protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act because they're vulnerable to their habitat being destroyed.

Undoubtedly, it's great to have something special and a bit rare in the pond, but the best thing is watching their behaviour. The male newts look a bit like a mini-dragon or maybe a stegosaurus. With tiny white speckles, a bright orange belly with black spots, a go-faster striped tail and a jaggedy crest, they look pretty smart.

They spend their time lurking in the bottom, mostly, coming nearer to the surface in the evenings to perform mating displays. A swish of the tail and a waft of pheromones are what it takes to impress a female newt, apparently.

I've learned that it's likely they came from less than a mile away, but it still amazes me that they managed to find the pond on their short legs. A bit of reading around on the web suggests that it's possible they could smell the water. Amazing!

The most fun you can have in a garden

I would go as far as to say that the pond project has been one of the most gratifying things I've done. So many people put loads of time, effort and money into decorating the insides of their houses. Why not put the effort into making your garden wildlife-friendly instead?

There are so many more benefits...

Being outdoors is good for the soul (and vitamin D)
The pond means there's now a bit less lawn to mow
Because it's a fish-free wildlife pond, I don't have to worry about water filters. Oxygenating weed does the trick
In warmer weather, I can sit by the pond in the mornings, eat my breakfast and watch what's going on (or the ripples and reflections of the clouds). It's the perfect start to the day
The garden is my wildlife photography studio
No need to worry about slugs or dandelions - they're all good bird food
Seeing wildlife in the garden beats any fancy flower or expensive shrub hands-down

Instead of thinking about the garden as a place where the lawn needs mowing and the veg patch needs digging, I feel more like it's my personal nature reserve, and I'm responsible for managing it. It's wonderful!

If you fancy your own backyard nature reserve, we've got tons of free advice in our Homes for Wildlife project.

What do you think?

The joys of spring

Katie Fuller — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:50:00 GMT

I've been feeling funny lately, and I wasn't sure why. Then, after giving it much thought, I decided on a likely cause. The joys of spring.

I first heard of 'the joys of spring' as a child when watching that well-known '80s cartoon, Willo the Wisp. The one with Kenneth Williams as Evil Edna the television, Mavis Cruet the fairy and Arthur the orange caterpillar, who lived together in Doyley Woods. If you didn't watch it yourself, maybe your kids did.

Anyway, one of the characters was a small, yellow bird, Twit. In spring, his character changed. He became happy - even romantic - and began to construct a nest in a tree. Nestbuilding isn't really my thing, but I've felt my spirits uplifted in the past few weeks. There's so much to look forward to in the coming months...

Already, you could see butterflies on a warm day. Many will have spent winter hidden away in crevices or outbuildings but will come out to feed when it's warm enough. Keep an eye out for familiar favourites like red admirals, peacocks and commas.

Though the bad weather that much of the UK suffered doesn't seem long ago, frogs and toads are plopping into ponds up and down the country. Listen out for the croaking and then watch their courtship activities. Their spawn can survive cold snaps, so it's not too early for them.

In a matter of weeks, bluebells will be blooming and primroses peeping up from the woodland floor. They'll be greeted by butterflies and bees eager for the nectar they provide. After a long, grey winter, I'm always drawn to flowers and blossom.

In Japan, sakura - cherry blossom - plays a big part in culture and hanami parties are held under the trees to celebrate. Cherry blossom forecasts are even issued! It's a shame we don't do something similar here... why not have a bluebell party to mark the occasion?

I'm almost as drawn to new spring leaves as to flowers. Something about the bright lime green you see when the sun shines through them symbolises spring and new growth perfectly for me. Everything is... alive!

Then, not long after the bluebells are out and the young leaves sprout, there are more technicolour treats to look forward to: the first damselflies, large reds, emerge from our ponds and rivers and add splashes of bright scarlet to our landscape. They live short, but eventful, lives.

From roughly the end of April, dragonflies follow the damselflies' example and crawl out of the water. They creep up a plant stem, climb out of their skins and fly off for a few months of fighting, mating and mosquito-munching.

Longer term, there are the pleasures of summer to look forward to... those long, warm days, warm evenings spent in the garden with bats flying overhead... and, Twit aside, I haven't even mentioned birds yet! There are swallows, nightingales, house martins, not forgetting hobbies, warblers...

That's why I'm enjoying spring.

Has spring gone 'boing!' for you?

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Taking the plunge

Katie Fuller — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:16:00 GMT

I'll admit it - I've become a terrible bore. In the three weeks since the big hole in my garden was filled with water, I've been unable to stop talking about it. I'm besotted by my new pond and its contents.

Creating it wasn't easy. It took two days of hard labour by me and my mother in the hot sun. Our clay soil is heavy stuff and there was a lot of it after we'd dug the hole, which measures 3.5 m x 2.5 m x 0.75 m deep (about 11' 6" by 8' 3" by 2' 6").

By lunchtime on the second day, we'd lined the hole with underlay, then pond liner and were just about ready to fill it with water. Two hours later, it was full and I'd finished trimming the edges, but I was so exhausted I had to have a lie down on the grass!

The payback for all the hard work started less than 24 hours later. I was relaxing by the 'pool' when I suddenly noticed movement on the water's surface. A pondskater was gliding about on the surface looking for bugs which had fallen in and got stuck in the surface tension. My pond had pondlife!

That was just the beginning, too. Over the next two weeks, the pioneering pondskater was joined by more pondskaters, water beetles, water lice, ramshorn snails (which arrived with plants donated by kind colleagues) and hundreds of mosquito larvae. I'm not wild about mosquitoes, but I know our local bats will be. Plus, they don't call dragonflies and damselflies 'mosquito hawks' for nothing.

Day 16 was a warm, sunny day and I sat next to the pond to watch what was going on. Within a few minutes, I was duly rewarded as a beautiful, forget-me-not-blue broad-bodied chaser dragonfly did battle with a four-spotted chaser. They whizzed low over the pond with the occasional buzz as they clashed wings, trying to see each other off. I'm not sure which was the winner...

Over the weekend, I've enjoyed watching the latest visitors - delicate azure damselflies and bold common darter dragonflies laying their eggs into the water. Goldfinches have been bathing in the shallow end. I had to fish out a few beetles which weren't aquatic.

The broad-bodied chaser's been back, too - will it be his offspring climbing out of the pond sometime over the next three years? I'll have to wait and see...

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Dragons in your garden?

Administrator — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:00:00 GMT

Like three tiny fighter planes, they cruised menacingly past, cagily eyeing each other from afar. Suddenly, they came together in a blur of wings and engaged in a furious catfight, ending with one tumbling unceremoniously into the water.

This is no tale of Battle of Britain gallantry in the skies above Europe. This was a battle for territorial supremacy at a pond near me. At war were a four-spotted chaser, a broad-bodied chaser and a hairy hawker.

Those brilliantly-named and colourful creatures are among several species of dragonflies and damselflies showcasing their flying skills all over the UK. It is now peak ‘flying time’ for them, so why not get out on a nice sunny day and enjoy them!

If you’re wondering what the difference is between a ‘dragon and a ‘damsel’, damselflies are smaller, thinner bodied and hold their wings over their backs when they're perched. The bigger, more active, thicker-bodied dragonflies hold their wings out to the sides when they are at rest.

You can see them on most rivers, pools, ponds and lakes, but did you know that you can also enjoy these fantastic insects in your garden? A pond is a real draw for these water-loving insects and it’s easy to make one in your garden!

Don’t worry if you haven’t got one - it’s not essential to have water in your garden attract them. Freshly emerged dragonflies and damselflies spend time away from water to let their new, flimsy wings develop in peace. They head for vegetation - a good reason to have patches of wildflowers and bushes in your garden - to mature and ‘harden off’. After a few days, they head back to water to find a mate and reproduce.

Dragonflies like migrant hawkers come to the skies above gardens to feast on smaller insects and common darters perch on your washing line and on garden canes. You might even get a visit from the mighty emperor! Large red, common blue and azure damselflies could also be coming to your garden this summer.

Have you seen any dragonflies and damselflies this year, or attracted them to your garden? Why not write a comment (you will need to register first - this is free - then log in). You can also be updated when something new is posted to this blog.