Wonderful Westbere

If you're looking for a site which is peaceful and quiet, you barely see another person and has a wide variety of wildlife including a good range of species of dragonflies and damselflies, then you can't really go wrong with a trip to Westbere Lakes. I have made a few visits over the past couple of days and spent a few hours walking around the area looking for a few specialities which include the Scarce Chaser and Norfolk Hawker. I think in my hours of walking, I only saw a couple of people and they were on a canoe going down the river, it really is a place I can't recommend enough. The weather was quite changeable on both days with sunny spells, cloudy skies, breezy but always quite warm especially when you find a few sheltered spots. Odonata totals noted included 31 Scarce Chaser providing a few nice photo opportunities, my first Norfolk Hawker today which is always an exciting species to see and reacquaint with, 100+ Variable, Azure, Blue tailed Damselfly along with 60+ Red eyed Damselfly, 70+ Banded Demoiselle and 4 Hairy Dragonfly including 2 females which posed for a few shots. I also spent some time along the river just watching the dragonflies and damselflies going about their day. Banded Demoiselles fluttered butterfly like over the river in good numbers, Scarce Chasers performed brief flights before returning back to their perch whilst everywhere you looked, damselflies could be seen rising out of the tall grasses and reeds. Also of note were 2 Raven flying south calling and 1 Mole swimming across a dyke at speed. It really is a special place. I was surprised not to see more Norfolk Hawkers but i'm sure in a few days time if the weather allows, they will slowly become more numerous. A rather pleasant few days and hopefully, a few more sessions or so in the next week.

 

Scarce Chaser (Libellula fulva) - maturing male 

Scarce Chaser (Libellula fulva) - maturing male 

Scarce Chaser (Libellula fulva) - maturing male 

Scarce Chaser (Libellula fulva) -  female 

Scarce Chaser (Libellula fulva) -  female 

Scarce Chaser (Libellula fulva) -  female 

Scarce Chaser (Libellula fulva) - immature male

 

Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) - male 

Blue tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans) - mating pair 

Hairy Dragonfly (Brachytron pratense) - female