Once again Don Tagg led us around the ponds and bogs of this important site, in pursuit of dragonflies and anything else of interest. There was a bit of cloud, and a breeze, but nevertheless conditions were not totally unsuitable for dragonflies.
Once again we tried to grasp the differences between the species of blue damselflies at Moat Pond, before moving off to the main boardwalk. Here we found good numbers of both keeled skimmers and black darters. One keeled skimmer was witnessed in the act of devouring a red damselfly! Further opportunities for exercising our powers of identification were provided by large red and small red damselflies. Also seen were a couple of black-tailed skimmers, one four-spotted chaser, and an emperor dragonfly.
Other insects of interest were a leaf-cutter bee, carrying a piece of birch leaf, several large skipper butterflies, a brown China-mark moth, and an Ammophila caterpillar-hunting wasp. Bog asphodel was in full flower, but the cotton grass was fading. A scrap of the bracket fungus Phellinus pini was found on the usual skinny pine tree.
A short break was taken on Pine Island which, since the devastating fire killed the trees, is in danger of being taken over by bracken. On the route back to Moat Pond, it was sad to see that the tiny ling, which was recolonising the higher ground, had died off as a result of the dry spring. Yet the bell heather seemed not to be affected. We made use of a new section of boardwalk, which was still under construction, seeing a redstart but not hearing the curlews that had already departed.
Back at Moat Pond, we found a dead pine with several brackets of Phellinus pini, a good record. A brown hawker dragonfly was hunting over the water. Don expressed his surprise at how few of the big Aeshnea dragonflies had been seen so far this year.
Dick Alder