Fairburn Ings (2)

The remainder of sightings from our visit to Fairburn Ings where the warmer, sunny weather brought out Dragonflies and an abundance of Damselflies. Our first Dragonfly sighting of the year is this Four Spotted Chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata), and fittingly four pics to accompany our fine sighting.





To help me with ID's Ive used A Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Great Britain and Ireland, Steve Brooks. I'm still a relative newby to both insects and am more than happy to accept corrections.

A Blue Tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans) a first of the year for me, on the margin of the trail, a little distance away from the water.



A mature female Common Blue, single stripe on thorax, the elongated black stripes, its taken from a slightly elevated angle so can't make out the medial spine on the underside of s8.


From the single black stripe on the thorax I'd say these are also a pair of Common Blue Damselflies (Enallagma cyathigerum)


A couple of Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula), black legs, black pterostigma, black markings on abdomen.

It was lovely to spot a family of Whitethroats, this one settled on a nearby branch, a more successful sighting than that of the Kingfisher which we missed by minutes.

And last but not least a Scorpion Fly (Panorpa communis)

Rodley Nature Reserve

A highlight of a weekend trip out to Rodley Nature Reserve were the Common Whitethroat, a summer visitor to the reserve. A first positive sighting for me, id'd with the help of friendly fellow visitors. Armed with the ability to put a name to a feathery face, it became easier to spot them due to their habit of perching conspciuously on the tops of bushes and tall weeds. These two hung around by the Dragonfly ponds.

This Great Tit popped its head out of the bird box situated in the Dragonfly ponds area.

Butterfly action consisted of four Small Torstoishell, two by the pools and a couple in the Meadow.

On the way to the Visitors Centre for a cuppa and to pick up a copy of the Annual Report for 2009 another Common Whitethroat appeared in the vegetation on the edge of Tim's Field.

Refreshes and refuelled I made my way up to the meadow, I followed the mown path up to the far end of the field and sat for a while to admire the view. I became engrossed in the thin stemmed flowering perennial grasses with densely packed spikelets Common Timothy (Phleum pratense) or Meadow Foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis) perhaps?

Looking down over the reserve I couldn't help but hear these three Mute Swans raise themselves from the wetland and head off downstream together.

Here you can see the stamens more clearly, grey at first, turning brown with time, maturing from the top of the spikelet to the bottom.