Wandering at Westbere

With the season now in full swing and seemingly not enough hours in the day to get out to all the sites that I wish to visit, I made the most of some good weather yesterday when I made a visit to Westbere Lakes. Arriving late morning, I spent a few hours walking up to the river and then west for a while along the footpath. There was an excellent number of dragonflies and damselflies on the wing which kept me occupied and these included a good showing of 17 Scarce Chaser, 14 Hairy Dragonfly, 1 Emperor Dragonfly, 1 Black tailed Skimmer, c60 Banded Demoiselle gracing the river with their characteristic butterfly flight, c20 Red eyed Damselfly along with 100's of Variable, Azure and Blue tailed Damselfly.

 

Black tailed Skimmer (immature female)

 

 Along the river I saw my first mature Norfolk Hawker which was resting up in the trees and although not the best of shots, I am happy to post this one as its the first of the season for me. Hopefully their season will be a successful one with plenty on the wing.

 

Norfolk Hawker (male)

 

I come across a nice male Scarce Chaser which occasionally hovered in flight and although my settings were completely wrong and shooting into the sun, these are just about passable to use.

 

Scarce Chaser (male) in Flight

 

On returning back to the car and with an hour to spare, I called in at Nethergong for the first time in a few months. The plan was to ideally clear some areas of long grasses so I could get near to the stream as soon the time will be arriving for the Emerald Damseflies and not long after, the Willow Emerald Damselflies to emerge, one of my favourite times of the season. Whilst down at the stream a few Hairy Dragonfly passed by and then, 1 Norfolk Hawker flew in and landed. I saw this species here last year and I'm hopeful that maybe they may build in number here and possibly breed as some of the habitat looks very good for them. I returned back to Nethergong this morning on a birding trip but whilst the sun was out early morning, I managed to see 2 Norfolk Hawker resting up which is certainly encouraging. I don't really have many shots of this species taken at Nethergong so I will make it a mission to address this and hopefully, obtain a few images in the forthcoming weeks. I also managed to see a few Hairy Dragonfly as well as the odd Variable, Azure and Blue tailed Damselfly. A really nice weekend just being out in the countryside enjoying what the dragonflies and damselflies have to offer.

 

Banded Demoiselle (female)