End of May Dragon Hunting - on 27th and 31st May, 2020

Having made the decision to separate reports of my occasional forrays into the wild, from those of my garden observations, here's the first of the former, complete with a new blog title (but still at the same blog web address).

It is great to be getting out into the countryside once more, and getting some exercise whilst topping up on natural vitamin D. However, I'm still doing this with a great deal of caution - somewhat more, it seems, than the majority of my compatriots! My visits are to carefully chosen places close to home which do not attract many people, and which do not require physical contact with gates, etc. to access. At this point in time - and this is for reasons of interest rather than security! - a pond, lake, river, or stream are key to my choice, as I'm keen to make the most of the dragon season.

Here follow two accounts of visits I made at the end of May.

Ticknall Limeyards, on 27th May

This location is in the grounds of Calk Park, owned by the National Trust, and currently closed to the public for access by car due to Covid-19. It is 6 miles (10 km) from my home by road.

I don't visit this place very often, but when I do I have parked in a location where I have never observed another vehicle parking and then walked into the limeyards via a public footpath. I parked the car and got out and was greeted by a person hanging over his garden gate, who informed me that I was parking on a private road and, with lockdown, as admission to the park by car was blocked, the roads around the area were getting choked by parked cars and they were going to put a lock on the gate to stop people parking on the priivate lane. However, he also told me that I was OK to park there on this occasion and wouldn't be locked in. His cousin then arrived on the scene and greeted me with "it's Richard Pegler!". He was a fellow committee member of the Blackfordby Wildlife Group! We had a long chat, at a distance, during which I was upgraded to the parking status of 'honoured guest'!

On my woodland walk into the limeyards, I stopped briefly to photograph a Speckled Wood butterfly.

Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) - Ticknall Limeyards

I arrived at the main lake area to find just one couple with a dog in the vicinity, so felt relatively relaxed with the situation. A quick scan around revealed a few damselflies and absolutely no dragonflies. Photography at this location is quite difficult as the three ponds are surrounded by dense woodland with just a small area of grass in the middle of the three. This results in only about 15-30% of the shoreline of each pond being accessible, and trying to find subjects with the sun in a convenient direction can be impossible at times.

I saw one Blue-tailed Damselfly and managed a few shots.

Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans) (male) - Ticknall Limeyards

There were several Azure Damselflies around, but I did not pay much attention to them, as they were tending to settle out in the lake on lily pads.

Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella) (male) - Ticknall Limeyards

Even more difficult to photograph here, although they are the main attraction for me at this time, were the Red-eyed Damselflies. They were in reasonable numbers but, as usual, I only saw males. They are a very nervous species in my experience and keep to the furthest out lily pads. It is also quite hard to get them in a position where the red eyes show to advantage. I'm not very happy with the results, but these are the best that I could manage.

Red-eyed Damselfly (Erythromma najas) (male) - Ticknall Limeyards

At one point, I got distracted by my first Common Blue butterfly of the year.

Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) (male) - Ticknall Limeyards

Whilst I was photographing the blue, a gentleman arrived on the scene. We had a conversation at some distance. He was from Coalville and was extremely knowledgeable about various local wildlife sites and their specialities. In less 'socially distancing' times I'd probably have exchanged contact details with him. He did, kindly, call my attention to an orchid that was in the process of flowering. I'd seen and photographed another one earlier, but this one was a little more advanced in its flowering.

Common Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) - Ticknall Limeyards

I suddenly realised that the area was starting to fill up with groups of people, mostly of 4 to 6 persons, none of which seemed to have any care for social distancing and had seemingly arrived to enjoy a picnic lunch. It was time for me to go! I got back to my car to find one of the residents had put a notice on my car, politely requesting that I did not park there in future. I shall refrain from doing so, in spite of having one resident's permission, as I don't want to cause any problems in the neighbourhood. 

It had been a morning with some disappointments, but far from totaly wasted.

Sunday, 31st May

On 30th May I got a notification that Alvecote Wood, a privately owned woodland 12 miles (19 km) from my home would be open to the public the following day. This is a place that I have been to on several occasions as it has some good ponds for dragonflies. There is no charge for entry, but I like to make a donation each time I visit. It is a place that does not usually attract many people on its open days but is, nevertheless, a beautiful place. I decided to get there soon after it opened at 10h00. 

On arrival, I found that just one other vehicle had beaten me to it, so hung around while owner Stephen talked to them, so that I could have a chat with him afterwards. Stephen told me that Ponds 1, 2, and 3 were a bit dry, but Pond 4 was holding up quite well. Stephen also introduced me to the new love in his life, the charming Rosie - it was great to see Stephen happy again after his tragic loss of Sarah. I then set off through the ancient woodland taking a different route in order to overtake the couple that had headed out before me.

As I left the ancient woodland and entered the new woodland area of Betty's Wood I found a Small Heath butterfly. It flew off before I could work my way round to its sunny side.

Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus) - Alvecote Wood

I was shocked to find that Ponds 1 to 3 were so dry that there was water only visible in small patches and that it was possible to walk in the ponds without getting muddy feet. Initially, I saw no dragons or damsels by these ponds. The situation changed, however, when I got to Pond 4. Here there were numerous Four-Spotted Chasers in action, and occasionally settling. Some of them exhibited the war wounds of many encounters with their conspecific companions.

Four-spotted Chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata) (male) - Alvecote Woods

I was pleased to see that I'd managed to photograph a female of the species, although my attempts to catch them while ovipositing or mating (they do it in flight) failed miserably.

Four-spotted Chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata) (female) - Alvecote Woods

I didn't spend much time trying to photograph damselflies, but a few were attempted. This first one was taken when I noted a green damselfly, raised my camera, and it had disappeared after the first two frames on fast speed. I'm used to seeing Common Emerald damselflies here and thought it was an early one before I looked at it on the back-of-camera screen and realised it was a female Banded Demoiselle!

Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) (female) - Alvecote Wood

Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella) (male) - Alvecote Wood

Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans) (male) - Alvecote Wood

Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) (male) - Alvecote Wood

It wasn't just damsels and dragons that I photographed, however. Other insects got their turn. Here are a couple of them. I think that the hoverfly might be a Parhelophilus sp. but I'm hoping that Conehead54 will, once again, put me on the right track (thank you for the confirmation!) - I have got a hoverfly fieldguide on order! The hoverfly was quite a long way away (heavily cropped with the 50-500 lens fully stretched to 500).

hoverfly -  Parhelophilus sp. - Alvecote Wood

Dock Bug (Coreus marginatus) - Alvecote Wood

The real prize for me, however, was the discovery of a Black-tailed Skimmer towards the end of my session. Although far from rare, I don't see many of these in my area and when I do they are usually on the ground, and they are usually males. It was, therefore, a pleasant surprise to find a female that had taken posession of a stick from which she made the occasional foray before returning. 

Black-tailed Skimmer (Orthetrum cancellatum) (female) - Alvecote

It was now getting a bit busier with people at Alvecote Wood, and I felt that it was time to depart. It had been a great morning with some pleasing results, My thanks to Stephen and Rosie for a very enjoyable visit.

I am now realising that public open spaces are very much busier than they ever used to be before lockdown. I think that it is because people are not able to get away on holiday, and that there are many more people not working too. I have noticed that the busiest times seem to be between about 11h15 and 14h30, no matter what day of the week it is - I will try and avoid being out at such times.

My next blog post will almost certainly be my weekly report of my garden lockdown records.

In the meantime, take great care and stay safe!