The Norfolk Mating Game!

With the Norfolk Hawker season now at its peak and with a good number being seen in the Stour Valley, I made a visit to Grove Ferry last weekend to see how many I could see. One of my main reasons for the visit was that a Red footed Falcon had taken up residence temporarily at Grove Ferry and was munching his way through the hawkers so I wanted to access the number that were still managing to escape its talons. I have tended to do most of my watching at Westbere for this species but on arrival and making my way down to a particular area, a couple of Norfolk Hawker were seen in flight over the reedbeds. I soon arrived at the area where the Falcon had been present for a few days and spent the next hour or so walking up and down a well managed dyke that looks absolutely brilliant for the species to breed in. In the time that I was there, I saw at least 15 Norfolk Hawkers including 5 mating pairs and an egg laying female which provided me with a number of photo opportunities which I gladly took. Also seen were 1 Four spotted Chaser and a number of Emperor Dragonflies flying up the dykes and over the adjacent meadows. Weather permitting, I shall hopefully share my weekend time when I am out between looking for my first Willow Emerald Damselflies of the year and another look at Grove Ferry for the Norfolk Hawkers. 

Norfolk Hawker (mating pair) 

Norfolk Hawker (female) ovipositing