Stuart's Wildlife Diary: Red-veined Darters

I headed out to Wembury for a walk on Friday 17th July, I caught the 9am bus as I had to sort out the moth box in the back yard before I left but on arriving at Wembury it was already baking hot and I wished I had caught the early bus instead, there wasn't much exciting in the moth box either but never mind.

Straw Dot

Jersey Tiger Moth

Cydia splendana - Chestnut Tortrix

Common Carpet

A surprise sighting at Wembury was a 1st summer/2nd winter Common Gull feeding along the beach amongst the Black-headed and Mediterranean Gulls, otherwise it was all the usual fayre for mid-July and not helped by the excessive heat.

Common Gull

There were plenty of butterflies on the wing though, they really are having a good summer this year with Gatekeepers the most abundant species. There were a few Clouded Yellow flitting about too including 2 helice types which were good to see.

Clouded Yellow - helice type female

After having brief views of the Odonata present at Drakes Reservoir last week before meeting up with my friend Monica I was keen to go back for a proper look and so I headed there again on Sunday 19th July. It was feeling warm and muggy despite the mostly overcast skies but I was hoping that something would be active around the water.

As soon as I arrived I found a male Emperor Dragonfly buzzing around along with at least 3 females which occassionally were seen ovipositing. At least 4 Common Blue Damselfly were also flitting about and at least 4 Small Red-eyed Damselfly were also seen on the small patch of Lily pads but the views were tricky at times.

Small Red-eyed Damselfly

Common Blue Damselfly (female)

A bright red Darter species then caught my eye and when it settled I was very pleased to ID it as a Red-veined Darter which is a new Dragonfly species for me here in the UK, I watched it for a while and then also found another one nearby.

Red-veined Darter

There were quite a few recently fledged Herring Gulls present amongst the adults, it seems to be a bit of a creche for them and amongst them was a pair of Lesser Black-backed Gulls trying to regurgitate food for their fledgling while trying to chase off any juvenile Herring Gulls trying to steal the food from them. A Little Egret was a surprise amongst the Herring Gulls too while overhead 2 Swift and a Swallow were seen flying over.

Herring Gull Fledglings, Drakes Reservoir

The creche would be a lovely place for Birdy and Burdy to go to, if I could get them there with their parents in tow I would as I fear they will end up as roadkill on the busy road nearby like last years youngsters. Indeed we did see a recently killed fledgling Herring Gull in the road on our walk back from a trip into town that afternoon but on checking the roof when I got home I was pleased to see it wasn't one of our fledglings.

Burdy and Birdy (or Little and Large)

We have tried to keep our distance from the fledglings this year so they keep some instinctive fear of humans in the hope that they will also have some fear of cars but time will tell. We try to ignore them when we go out in the back yard and they generally run off when we appear but we always keep the water bowl topped up for them. We have also fed the adults with fish sticks from the bedroom window while keeping out of sight as much as possible, the adults then regurgitate the fish sticks for the fledglings so they get a healthier meal than the fast food crap they usually get from their parents and hopefully without them associating food with us. Unfortunately our neighbours have been feeding them bread from their windows too and more overtly so I don't know if it will make any difference in the end.

It was back to Wembury for a walk on Monday 20th July, I caught the 7am bus this time and it felt quite pleasantly cool when I arrived although it soon warmed up again. It was still quiet but there were 3 Grey Heron out on the rocks on the incoming tide, a juvenile and 2 adults and my first at Wembury this year. Mediterranean Gull numbers had increased but they were mobile and flighty and difficult to count accurately but there was a single juvenile bird present and there were also now 3 1st summer/2nd winter Common Gulls feeding along the beach amongst the Black-headed Gulls.

Common Gull

Black-headed Gull - juvenile

Butterflies were again noticeable and included Clouded Yellows, Painted Lady and Peacocks and there were also 2 Adders basking in dappled shade at The Point where 3 Hummingbird Hawkmoths were buzzing about or resting on the vegetation.

Painted Lady

Clouded Yellow

Clouded Yellow - helice type

Adder

Hummingbird Hawkmoth

Bee Wolf

With a surprise report of an adult breeding plumaged Knot on Blaxton Meadow that morning while I was at Wembury I decided to have a quick look for it on the high tide the next day (Wednesday 22nd July). I arrived just after Midday and Blaxton Meadow was looking as green as ever but there was some water on the Meadow and more excitingly there were roosting birds!

Blaxton Meadow

I hadn't brought my scope with me and viewing the birds was difficult with many distant and tucked down into the vegetation or hidden along the water channels but eventually I picked out 2 Oystercatcher, 5 Greenshank, around 70 Redshank and around 20 Curlew. I found the Knot too but the views were obscured as it preened and then slept amongst the Redshank while mostly hidden by the weeds. There were also 2 Whimbrel hidden amongst the weeds with the Curlews before they noisily flew off down river and in amongst the large flock of roosting Black-headed Gulls were 2 Mediterranean Gulls (an adult and a 2nd summer bird) and both moulting out of breeding plumage).

Out on the river were a pair of Shelduck with 3 well grown fledglings and at the beach by the gas pipe there were 8 Common Sandpipers and a Collared Dove with a noisy Kingfisher dashing past. However the highlight of my walk was a presumed adult Yellow-legged Gull preening and then sleeping in amongst the roosting Herring, Great Black-backed, Black-headed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. The views were distant and heat hazy but it's my first sighting of one this year.