Puddledyke - on 4th August, 2021

I have been so far behind with my photo processing and blog posts, partly due to the huge number of photos that I have taken, but also due to monumental work being needed in both our front and back gardens. This was not helped by a week away in the New Forest in Hampshire where a few thousand photos were taken - mainly of dragonflies and damselflies - I shall start work on a blog post covering that visit soon.  And then there's a whole lot of catching up with what's been happening around our garden and nearby locations, again with plenty of dragon interest. The solution is to provide you with a quick blog post while I get to work on posts that will be a little more involved.

This post covers a visit earlier this week to a location which is known as Puddledyke. Puddledyke is a small lake that came into existence as a source of puddled clay for the foundations of the nearby dam that was built to create Cropston Reservoir. Until a few years ago, it was a managed fishing lake, but it has now fallen into disuse. However, there are five small 'fishing pegs' still extant which are in reasonable condition, although access to them is not so great.

Last year (2020) at about this time, I found my first ever Small Red-eyed Damselfly at this location - a species that is rather rare in Leicestershire and Rutland. I was determined, therefore, to return this year to see if there was a breeding colony.

I arrived to find the site more overgrown than I have previously experienced. The lake is only really visible from the fishing pegs and these are all accessed by a steep drop of approximately 4ft (1.2metres) via 'steps' roughly hewn into the clay. These can be treacherous in wet conditions - it was, however, not wet that was a problem this day, but long grass growing over the steps and hiding them, which meant that every step had to be gingerly felt for before committing one's weight. The platforms which form the pegs are approximately 1.5 metres square and vegetation has grown to partially envelope them, so the viewing vista is not that good. Add to the above information the fact that my balance seems to have deteriorated in the past few months and I also have difficulty in steadily rising from kneeling or sitting on the deck, and you can see that the conditions were a little limiting!

The first peg didn't produce anything other than a brief sighting of a passing male Migrant Hawker. 

The second peg was a little better as there was a male Ruddy Darter with an established territory, and a few Emerald Damselflies.

Ruddy Darter (Sympetrum sanguineum) (male) - Puddledyke

Emerald Damselfly (Lestes sponsa) (male) - Puddledyke

The third peg had various damselflies , but photography here was difficult. I did manage a very poor record shot of a pair of Emerald Damselfly in tandem.

Emerald Damselfly (Lestes sponsa) (male+female) - Puddledyke

The fourth peg, which is where I had the Small Red-eyed Damselfly last year, turned up trumps, but not with that species. As I landed rather inelegantly on the platform a rustle from beside me drew my attention to a Brown Hawker flying away from the bushes on my right. It flew around for a while and then came back and settled, although not in the best of positions. Remember - I had very little room to manoeuvre.

Brown Hawker (Aeshna grandis) (female) - Puddledyke

Brown Hawker has a reputation for constantly being on the wing, with unpredictable flight patterns, and rarely settling for a photo. I get opportunities most years, but usually of ovipositing females. It is rarely that I get close to a perched one. I was, therefore, delighted when this one left her position and moved to a slightly less cluttered one a little closer to me.

 

Brown Hawker (Aeshna grandis) (female) - Puddledyke

She moved again, but this time to a rather inconvenient position and then flew under the peg that I was standing on and disappeared into the shrubs beside me. It was time for me to move on to check out peg No.5.

 

Peg No.5 had very little in the way of odonata activity round it, but it did give me an appreciated opportunity to photograph a female Emerald Damselfly.

 

Emerald Damselfly (Lestes sponsa) (female) - Puddledyke

I now felt it was time to explore the path that headed north from the east side of the lake in the hope that it might give views from the west side. However it just kept heading north and I turned back when I arrived at an open field of short grass.

 

There's a small meadow that runs along the east side of the lake and has a tall hedgerow with mature trees on its eastern side. Last year I had my eye on harvesting sloes from this hedgerow to make sloe gin, but then lockdown came. Maybe I'll do better this year. I have also occasionally noticed dragonflies flying up from the lake and heading up high into the trees of this hedgerow. I decided, therefore, that it was worth a look. I'm pleased to say that this paid off in the form of an immature male Migrant Hawker. I'm guessing that it was probably at a height of about  six or seven metres, and probably about four metres back from the front of the hedge, so I was not able to get close, but it was good to see.

Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta) (immature male) - Puddledyke

I then made up my mind to do a return circuit of the fishing pegs. At peg No.1 I saw a male Migrant Hawker fly past and disappear round the corner, but attemps to find it again failed.

 

Little was seen then until I reached peg No.4 once more. Here I took some shots of a distant Ruddy Darter.

 

Ruddy Darter (Sympetrum sanguineum) (male) - Puddledyke

I also spent a little more time concentrating on the damselflies in the hope of spotting a Small Red-eyed Damselfly - an objective in which I failed.

 

Emerald Damselfly (Lestes sponsa) (male) - Puddledyke

Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella) (male) - Puddledyke

The biggest surprise came when the Brown Hawker reappeared and, having settled in a couple of difficult places for photography, clearly came to check me out and, presumably having decided I was not a threat, settled on the peg approximately a foot (30cm) from my feet! These are not the best of photos, but they do represent a remarkable situation.

 

Brown Hawker (Aeshna grandis) (female) - Puddledyke

I had been on site for a little over an hour and a half when solid black cloud and wind rolled in and it was time to head home after a highly enjoyable, and somewhat memorable, short dragon hunting session.

 

 

I'll now start work on my next post which I hope will not be too long in the making. Until then, thank you for your visit. Take good care and stay safe. - - - Richard