The Meadow Pipits were trickling through in slightly increased numbers at Ferry Meadows, this morning, before work. Nothing spectacular (if Meadow Pipits can ever be described as such), but a more or less steady drip of groups of three or so passing over to the south.
The highlight of my wildlife day was when I wondered into the garden with a cup of tea for a brief break. I didn’t notice a Southern Hawker dragonfly until it flew up from near my feet and started patrolling around the garden, grabbing little insects. It was a female and I believe it was probably laying eggs on the rotting wood we have at one end of the pond, partly to attract Southern Hawker egg-laying. Unusually, they lay on wood, and the little nymphs emerge briefly before entering the water for their long aquatic stage.
It has been about a decades since we last had Southern Hawkers emerging from the pond, so I hope we get an emergence next summer. They are spectacular, large, brightly coloured dragonflies which have the endearing habit of seeming to investigate humans on their territory…
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