Hello, dear faithful reader, you're probably wondering why Odometer is a bit light in the posting department now that Summer is here? Hmmm, me too. A fair bit has happened since my last brief Odometer post, back in November 2015, advertising a talk about the dragons and damsels of Orkney.
Sightings news, both in and outwith Orkney, has been reported on the main Imperfect and Tense blog, whilst the behind-the-scenes stuff hasn't had a mention at all.
In early Spring, I spent an eye-crossing day and night number crunching the local Odonata records from 1992 until 2015 to compile a flight period table and produce an article for the Orkney Field Club journal.
Shortly afterwards, I was honoured to be offered the opportunity to be the Field Club's dragonfly recorder, a post in which I hope to be able to continue the excellent work of my predecessors, Keith Fairclough and Dick Matson (who were responsible for collating the 1992 to 2015 records).
To try to tap into the digital age and the enthusiastic photographers who post on Facebook, I have also set up an Orkney dragonfly and damselfly Fb group, OrkOdo, to help with both community engagement and recording.
More recently, yesterday in actual fact, I lead a dragonfly walk for the Field Club on the island of Hoy, with the aim of showing as many species as possible to anyone who came along. The weather wasn't great, so there was only four of us (and two of those were Our Lass and I), but we had a grand time, seeing six of the eight breeding species for Orkney.
The flight period article has been slightly rejigged to have a wider, less Orkney-centric appeal, with the addition of a map, some habitat shots and an explanatory paragraph about Orkney in general. This has now been submitted to the British Dragonfly Society for possible inclusion in their journal.
So all in all, things have moved on a bit and I need to start thinking about a Winter project to make those dark nights fly by.
Meantime, sightings and trip reports will most likely appear over on I&T, but if I ever discover a 'new for Orkney' species, you will hear about it here first.
Sunday, 24 July 2016
Friday, 20 November 2015
Sunday, 16 August 2015
Dragons a-Hoy! 16th August 2015
With a fine day forecast, I cleared the decks of what I was supposed to be doing, parked the car at Houton and caught the morning ferry to the island of Hoy, Orkney's Dragonfly Central. My plan was to walk from Lyness up to Wee Fea, checking any likely pools on the way for dragons and damsels. I'd been given a few tips of where to look for odes by a Field Club colleague (thanks, Brian) and through some photographs posted on Facebook by a Hoy resident (thanks, Betty).
Betty also offered to meet up with me later in the day, which she duly did, and kindly chauffeused me to various points of the island, which I would've been unable to visit on foot in the time available before the return ferry.
The bare statistics of the day show that we saw 6 of the 8 species resident on Hoy, with Black Darter by far the most numerous. We noted breeding behaviour at 5 of the 6 sites visited, including pairs in tandem, pairs in cop, ovipositing, exuviae and maiden flights of newly-emerged dragons.
What those numbers don't show are the intangible effects of the best day's odo-ing I've experienced in a long while...
Wing clatter! Oh how I've missed the sound of wing clatter, as vegetation or other dragons are raked by dragon flight. And the gentle buzz (both physical and mental) of a large hawker whizzing past my ear at close range. And whilst neither of us could capture on camera a female Common Hawker which landed on my knee, my personal odometer went off the scale.
So, it's a huge vote of thanks to Betty for a most enjoyable day, and here's a few pics from the trip...
Betty also offered to meet up with me later in the day, which she duly did, and kindly chauffeused me to various points of the island, which I would've been unable to visit on foot in the time available before the return ferry.
The bare statistics of the day show that we saw 6 of the 8 species resident on Hoy, with Black Darter by far the most numerous. We noted breeding behaviour at 5 of the 6 sites visited, including pairs in tandem, pairs in cop, ovipositing, exuviae and maiden flights of newly-emerged dragons.
What those numbers don't show are the intangible effects of the best day's odo-ing I've experienced in a long while...
Wing clatter! Oh how I've missed the sound of wing clatter, as vegetation or other dragons are raked by dragon flight. And the gentle buzz (both physical and mental) of a large hawker whizzing past my ear at close range. And whilst neither of us could capture on camera a female Common Hawker which landed on my knee, my personal odometer went off the scale.
So, it's a huge vote of thanks to Betty for a most enjoyable day, and here's a few pics from the trip...
 |
| Emerald Damselflies, Lestes sponsa, in cop |
 |
| Male Black Darter, Sympetrum danae |
 |
| Exuviae of Black Darter, one on top of another |
 |
| Immature male Black Darter |
 |
| Common Blue Damselflies, Enallagma cyathigerum, in cop |
 |
| Male Emerald Damselfly |
 |
| Female Common Hawker, Aeshna juncea |
 |
| Female Black Darter |
Tuesday, 28 July 2015
Holm, Sunday 26th July 2015
On Sunday, we ventured to an area that we had not previously explored, Heathery Howes. With the landowwner's permission, the plan was to park up at the side of the nearest available road and walk along tracks to a largish pool shown on the local OS map. It was reasonably warm and sunny, with little in the way of breeze, so prospects were good and hopes were high.
Not far from the road, whilst looking at a Meadow Brown butterfly by the edge of the path, a long, thin insect flew over our heads. Panic ensued, as Our Lass hadn't seen it and I immediately lost sight of the creature. It had been headed for an ephemeral pool in the adjacent field, a pool that was probably only there because of the wet Spring and Summer we've been experiencing.
Scanning the water's edge with our bins, we were rewarded with glimpses of half a dozen Large Red Damselflies, several of whom were in tandem.
Having solved one mystery, another presented itself. If the pool was ephemeral as I suspected, where had the damselflies come from, as they would've spent the past twelve months underwater as larvae?
On the opposite side of the track, was a deep ditch, and this too had several Large Reds present, taking full advantage of a warm, sheltered and sunny spot. The ditch could possibly hold water all year round, and so be a contender for an emergence site.
Further along the track, we discovered more pools and damp mossy places that were supporting small groups of damselflies. All were mature adults, many exhibiting breeding behaviour of one sort or another: males battling to hold a territory, a male and female in tandem, or a pair ovipositing.
Competition was obviously intense, as rival males were trying all the tricks in the book to break up mating pairs. Three in a (reed) bed, anyone?
As far as our pool search was concerned, we initially drew a blank, until I realised that there were more fences and tracks on the ground than on the map, which is is probably the result of moorland having been drained and converted to pasture. When we finally followed the correct track along the correct fence line, we didn't find the pool, so it may have been lost as the land dried out.
However, it was heartening to record 5 new sites for Odonata, and there's still the future prospect of discovering the definite emergence site for all those Large Reds.
Tuesday, 7 July 2015
Hoxa, Sunday 5th July 2015
After an early morning walk down to the shore in warm sunshine and the lightest of breezes, I was given special dispensation to partake of a spot of dragon hunting, before the main event of the day, a trip to Herston to nose about other folks' gardens.
So, just before lunch, we drove over to South Ronaldsay and onto Hoxa, to check the various pools for any odonatalogical interest.
The small reservoir in the old quarry is particularly sheltered, so that the 'shallow end' (with its emergent vegetation and silage bale windbreak) is an excellent piece of habitat. Sure enough, we soon struck gold with plenty of Blue-tailed Damselflies in various states of maturity.
I was able to find many recently-emerged individuals, some still located at their emergence site along with their exuviae, and other teneral damsels, having taken their maiden flight. I was especially delighted to spot a few exuviae which were upside down, as Blue-tails are known for sometimes emerging... er... arse about face.
There were also some mature damsels, in variously-hued in either blue, green, orange or purple. One unfortunate individual was caught in a spider's web, which normally presents me with an ethical dilemma - whether to intervene or not. In this instance, the action was taking place out of arm's reach and came to a dramatic conclusion before I could find a suitable (or unsuitable, if you're of an arachnid persuasion) stick.
Here's the sequence I photographed (see, I was going to follow it through to the grisly denouement, you doubting readers!)...
Upon reviewing these images, I am now wondering whether the spider's intention was to free the damselfly, before its frantic attempts to escape wrecked the carefully-constructed web. I know, it isn't like me to give a spider the benefit of the doubt, eh?
However, just as it looked like curtains for the Blue-tail, it plummeted into the water, so out of the frying pan and into the fire - not the best analogy, I admit.
I managed to find it again, once it had struggled onto a piece of vegetation and was busy cleaning the remnants of the web silk from its body.
Phew!
Other damsels were being more circumspect, trying to avoid arachnids and humans.
A little further along the road, the other pools were not so sheltered, and consequently we only found two adult damselflies. Though we were on a public road, we had to run the gauntlet of a nearby tern colony, which proved to be... er... interesting. It was dread o'clock!
So, just before lunch, we drove over to South Ronaldsay and onto Hoxa, to check the various pools for any odonatalogical interest.
The small reservoir in the old quarry is particularly sheltered, so that the 'shallow end' (with its emergent vegetation and silage bale windbreak) is an excellent piece of habitat. Sure enough, we soon struck gold with plenty of Blue-tailed Damselflies in various states of maturity.
I was able to find many recently-emerged individuals, some still located at their emergence site along with their exuviae, and other teneral damsels, having taken their maiden flight. I was especially delighted to spot a few exuviae which were upside down, as Blue-tails are known for sometimes emerging... er... arse about face.
There were also some mature damsels, in variously-hued in either blue, green, orange or purple. One unfortunate individual was caught in a spider's web, which normally presents me with an ethical dilemma - whether to intervene or not. In this instance, the action was taking place out of arm's reach and came to a dramatic conclusion before I could find a suitable (or unsuitable, if you're of an arachnid persuasion) stick.
Here's the sequence I photographed (see, I was going to follow it through to the grisly denouement, you doubting readers!)...
Upon reviewing these images, I am now wondering whether the spider's intention was to free the damselfly, before its frantic attempts to escape wrecked the carefully-constructed web. I know, it isn't like me to give a spider the benefit of the doubt, eh?
However, just as it looked like curtains for the Blue-tail, it plummeted into the water, so out of the frying pan and into the fire - not the best analogy, I admit.
I managed to find it again, once it had struggled onto a piece of vegetation and was busy cleaning the remnants of the web silk from its body.
Phew!
Other damsels were being more circumspect, trying to avoid arachnids and humans.
A little further along the road, the other pools were not so sheltered, and consequently we only found two adult damselflies. Though we were on a public road, we had to run the gauntlet of a nearby tern colony, which proved to be... er... interesting. It was dread o'clock!
Friday, 26 June 2015
Cross referencing
Just in case, by some strange quirk of odonatalogical cyberspace, you're only following Odometer and not the full blown Imperfect and Tense blog, here's one I made earlier...
Friday, 5 June 2015
2015 - my flight season finally kicks off
The 4th of June. Can you credit it? Following a wet Winter and Spring, the Summer is significantly later this year. This has turned out to be the one small flaw in my cunning plan for odo-watching in 2015.
Having decamped to the Wester Ross region of Scotland on a week's holiday, with the hope of seeing a few Azure Hawkers, the lateness of the season became starkly apparent. Plenty of excellent habitat, and certainly plenty of midges to provide nourishment, but not enough consecutive warm days to tempt any self-respecting damsel or dragon to emerge.
Still, there are compensations in the form of a variety of other wildlife: birds, plants and some more robust insects.
Finally, on the afternoon of Thursday, 4th June 2015, under heavy, grey skies, we struck lucky at the small pond behind the car park at the Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve.
We were fortunate to discover four recently-emerged Large Red Damselflies, though the lack of light, and possibly my trembling hands, made photography difficult.
The staff at the Visitor Centre also reported that a Four-spotted Chaser had been seen at a nearby bog. The wait is over. And whilst we're possibly not at the 'All systems go' stage, we're at least carefully and slowly flicking the switches from 'Off' to 'On'.
Having decamped to the Wester Ross region of Scotland on a week's holiday, with the hope of seeing a few Azure Hawkers, the lateness of the season became starkly apparent. Plenty of excellent habitat, and certainly plenty of midges to provide nourishment, but not enough consecutive warm days to tempt any self-respecting damsel or dragon to emerge.
Still, there are compensations in the form of a variety of other wildlife: birds, plants and some more robust insects.
Finally, on the afternoon of Thursday, 4th June 2015, under heavy, grey skies, we struck lucky at the small pond behind the car park at the Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve.
We were fortunate to discover four recently-emerged Large Red Damselflies, though the lack of light, and possibly my trembling hands, made photography difficult.
The staff at the Visitor Centre also reported that a Four-spotted Chaser had been seen at a nearby bog. The wait is over. And whilst we're possibly not at the 'All systems go' stage, we're at least carefully and slowly flicking the switches from 'Off' to 'On'.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)