White-faced Darter - on 23rd May, 2016

WARNING !!! This is a long post with many images!!

On Monday 23rd May I spent best part of 5 hours on my knees in a bog on the Welsh Borders. No, I was not calling for Huey down the big white telephone, but attempting to photograph a very localised species of dragonfly at a wonderful location known as Whixall Moss, which straddles the English/Welsh border. This is a National Nature Reserve, a Ramsar site and also a European Special Area of Conservation - a pretty important place in other words!

I'd done a bit of background research with the help of the Reserve Manager, Peter Bowyer (thank you!), and as the weather forecast for the day looked quite promising, I set off westwards at around 08h15 (I don't do early starts!). I first called at the NNR offices where I paid for a booklet that had kindly been sent to me on trust, and where a very helpful lady explained, with landmarks, the best route to the area of the moss that had been indicated by Peter as being the most likely place to find the White-faced Darter (WFD) that I was seeking.

I set off in bright sunshine, although there was a strong cool breeze blowing. After about ten minutes or so I came to a place where I'd been told that there was a possibility of of seeing WFD on my way to the main location - and there I saw my first-ever WFD, albeit briefly and at a distance. What a splendid dragonfly it was too! The WFD is the smallest of the British darters at just under 2 inches (50mm) long.

White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) (male) - Whixall Moss

A little more relaxed in the knowledge that the day was not going to be a total failure, I continued onwards. A little further on I found a pair of Stonechat which, as some of you might know, is one of my favourite passerines. Things were really looking promising!

I knew I'd found the right place when I came to an area of water, the boundary of which was marked with canes carrying numbers and letters, and with duckboards round part of the edge. Almost immediately I spotted a mating pair of WFD which briefly settled on the ground out of the breeze in the lea of a sapling, and then moved to another sheltered spot.

White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) (mating pair 'in wheel') - Whixall Moss

Shortly after this I spotted a teneral male WFD which took its first flight in the breeze, landing awkwardly on the grass, where it partially closed its wings for some time and rested - it takes a while for the red colouration to develop. I found a stick to put into the ground to mark its position so that it wouldn't get accidentally trodden on.

White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) (teneral male) - Whixall Moss

There were a few males flying around and occasionally settling, but the only females that I was seeing were mating, with the exception one female that appeared to be ovipositing. Although there was no obvious dipping of the abdomen, she did seem to be just 'tipping' the open water.

White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) (female) - Whixall Moss

The male WFDs were settling quite obligingly, although very alert to an approach.

White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) (male) - Whixall Moss

This next image is of another teneral male, which has flown, but closed its wings again - possibly because of the breeze.

White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) (teneral male) - Whixall Moss

Finding mating pairs wasn't difficult, but they still remained very alert to intrusion. The second image, below is not a good photo, but is included as it is the only one I have which shows most of the white face which gives the species it common name.

White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) (mating pair 'in wheel') - Whixall Moss

The males spent a fair bit of time sunning themselves on the duckboards - not the most natural of settings, but it gave a much less cluttered background than any of their other resting places that I saw!

White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) (male) - Whixall Moss

It was at 11h31 that I noticed a dragonfly nymph making its way across the weed. I subsequently confirmed that this was of WFD. 

White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) (nymph) - Whixall Moss

I watched it for a while as it travelled over weed, under water, and through a 'soup' of algae.

White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) (nymph) - Whixall Moss

It was then that 'the penny dropped' - 'it's making for the bank and it's going to emerge!!!'

I'll now show some images of the emergence sequence with the times they represent - sadly, the most exciting bit is missing, as I'll explain shortly.

White-faced Darter - From Nymph to Dragonfly

11h50 = datum + 000 minutes    Nymph leaves the water and starts ascending the bank    

White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) (nymph) - Whixall Moss

Now this is the real sad bit! I was standing about 10 feet (3 metres) away and the nymph crawled into the vegetation and I lost sight of it. I went round to the area that it had disappeared into but didn't dare search too closely for fear of damaging it. I couldn't find it so then retreated again to my original position. I spent some time watching and then gave up, being distracted by other things going on.

12h48 = datum + 058 minutes    Dragonfly now emerged and hanging on to the exuvia   

Suddenly I noticed that a dragonfly had emerged from its casing immediately above where I'd seen the nymph emerge. I'd missed the hanging downwards bit whilst the legs, etc dried, and here it was with body upright and wings just emerged.

White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) (newly emerged female) - Whixall Moss

The thing that I found remarkable at this stage was that the WFD sported an almost luminous green face!

I was now watching intently and determined to see this through until it took its first flight. 

12h55 = datum + 065 minutes    Wings now starting to fill out   

Just seven minutes later and the emergent WFD was starting to look different. The green face was now yellow, and the wings were taking shape. It had also moved slightly higher up the blade of grass.

12h58 = datum + 068 minutes    Wings now filling out  a little further

It was now getting more breezy and sunny weather was starting to give way to cloud. This meant that the newly emerged dragonfly was blowing around and making photography a tad more difficult.

13h04 = datum + 074 minutes    Wings still expanding and becoming clearer

13h20 = datum + 090 minutes    Wings now getting much clearer

13h24 = datum + 094 minutes    First partial opening of wings

13h41 = datum + 111 minutes    Abdomen extending and starting to take on colour

At around this time I got the impression that the process had slowed down somewhat. This might well have been due to conditions turning dull and colder, with an increasing breeze.

14h23 = datum + 153 minutes    Wings spread, abdomen extended, and markings visible

14h47 = datum + 177 minutes    Markings clearly visible and abdomen well-coloured

Whilst taking those last two images, I sensed by the movement that she was ready to fly, and moments later she flew and disappeared into the distance. It had been almost exactly 3 hours from the nymph leaving the water to the flight of the teneral adult. This was the first time I'd ever watched the transition from nymph to teneral adult, but I hope it won't be the last.

I was now rather cold, damp-kneed, and aching from stooping, so my last act before heading homeward was to take the exuvia as a souvenir, and carefully place it in a glass phial that I'd taken for this very purpose! This itself was a rather hazardous process as it twice blew away as I was attempting to coax it into the phial! I was hoping for a bit of sunshine today, in order to photograph the exuvia, but had no luck on that score!

White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) (exuvia of female) - from Whixall Moss

Back to the rest of the day:

Whilst photographing the emergence described above, I had allowed myself the occasional distraction - sometimes out of necessity for the sake of my knees! Here's a few images taken during this period.

On the bank where the darters were emerging were a few Sundew plants. I don't think I've ever seen Sundew in the wild before, and now wish I'd taken more and better photos! Thank you, Pete, for the ID on this.

Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) - Whixall Moss

I did actually see one perched female WFD, but at a great distance! This, however, was possibly a teneral.

White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) (female) - Whixall Moss

As well as Large Red Damselflies (which I did not photograph) there were a few Four-spotted Chasers around. I tried for a few flight shots - and failed! One did settle briefly whilst I was watching.

Four-spotted Chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata) (male) - Whixall Moss

Although I didn't witness 'my' WFD hanging down from the exuvia when it first emerged, I did see several others in this this state. Here's one of them, which eventually revealed itself to be a female.

White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) (emerging female) - Whixall Moss

At one point I found it necessary to take a short stroll to get my legs and circulation working again. I used this to observe the Stonechats.

Stonechat (Saxicola torquata) (male) - Whixall Moss

I continued to take photos of the WFDs - here's one of a male emerging.

White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) (emerging male) - Whixall Moss

. . . . . and here's another adult male.

White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) (male) - Whixall Moss

I did watch one female WFD which took its first flight and landed in a tree. This was the only time I saw a WFD in a tree, although I understand that female WFDs habitually rest in trees.

White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) (teneral female) - Whixall Moss

Whilst photographing that last specimen, a male Reed Bunting was singing loudly above me. It didn't seem to care about my presence.

Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) (male) - Whixall Moss

There were also Linnet nearby, but I only managed a snap of a female.

Linnet (Carduelis cannabina) (female) - Whixall Moss

Back at the water, shortly before 'my' WFD took flight, I noted a nymph swimming below the surface about 6 or 7 metres from me. I'm confused as to what it might have been as it appears to have caudal lamellae, indicating a damselfly species, but it appeared to be too large to be a damselfly - in fact my first reaction on seeing it was that it was too big to be a WFD! I guess my sense of size was seriously at fault. Any clues or suggestions would be appreciated! I've now been told that this is a diving beetle larva, and probably of a Dystiscus species (i.e. Great Diving Beetle) - Thank you SteB! So probably my general ID skills at fault, rather than my sense of size!!

diving beetle nymph (prob. Great Diving Beetle Dystiscus sp.) - Whixall Moss

At the end of my five hours at Whixall Moss, as I departed, I took some shots of one of the pairs of Stonechats.

Stonechat (Saxicola torquata) (female) - Whixall Moss

Stonechat (Saxicola torquata) (male) - Whixall Moss

I've had some good days of late, but this one has to be the most rewarding of the lot. I fired off 1,136 frames there (a record for me for a day's shooting), but this was partly because of difficult conditions due to the breeze moving the subject matter around, requiring the 'scatter gun' apporoach to photography! Whixall Moss is a fabulous place - I just wish it was a little closer to home. Weather permitting, I shall be back there on 4th June - I've probably shot myself in the foot by saying that!

Thank you for dropping by - I hope this post hasn't been too heavy for you!