Dragonfly Hunt!

Dragonfly Hunt!

We arrived at 10:30am to meet the kind Eddie Urbanski in order for him to tour us round his patch. Once we arrived had arrived at his patch, which was Cors Geirch NNR, the first thing I spotted was a Painted Lady, followed by a moth which Kevin (Eddie's friend) identified as a Straw Dot. We then started wading through a marshy bit of the site and almost immediately, Eddie pointed out a male Keeled Skimmer. Unfortunately, it flew away instead of landing for a record shot, but little did I know, that this would be one of many to be seen that day. We continued walking through the marsh when Kevin said he had a Bog Hoverfly. I searched the area he saw it in and spotted a male Keeled Skimmer sitting right in front of me, waiting to be photographed.

We then walked through a dryer area of the wetland where Kevin pointed out a Bog Hoverfly (Sericomyia Silentis) nectaring right besides us, allowing for a perfect record shot.

We then started searching the pony dung in the dryer area to try and spot a Hornet Robberfly. As soon as we got through the gate, to get to the best area for Hornet Robberflies, an orange butterfly landed right in front of us. At first I thought it was a Gatekeeper, but on closer inspection I identified it as a bogey butterfly for me, the Wall Brown! 

As soon as we walked past the gate, we were greeted by a large pile of fresh pony dung, and guarding the dung was our target species, the Hornet Robberfly. It looked very orange in the sun, making it stand out in the dung. It was also surprisingly large. They are actually Britain's largest fly!

We then spotted two large hawkers, when one of them landed. It's blue colouring and upside-down triangle marking on S2 identified it as a Migrant Hawker. It was a stunning blue colouration. This was my first view of this dragonfly perched up and not flying around. It was also my first Migrant Hawker of the year!

We then walked further down the path and accidently flushed a Hornet Robberfly, but as it flew away I noticed something was dangling from it. I then went to where I thought it landed and as soon as I got there, it flew and landed just a few metres away on a dead stick. It was eating a Cranefly! I got a photo of it and then left it, so it could enjoy its meal in peace. 

We then got to the area Eddie said was best for Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies, but he also mentioned we'd be lucky to see one as it was quite late in the season for them. On the way there, I spotted a male Beautiful Demoiselle, which I had surprisingly seen quite a few of this year. Nevertheless, we were still hopeful and so we continued to search the muddy bog for them. Suddenly, I spotted a damselfly as it elegantly flew towards a reed. However this damselfly was red instead of blue. I got a record shot of it and excitedly zoomed in on the leg colour. They were red, meaning this was a Small Red Damselfly, a new damselfly for me and one of our main targets of the trip!

After searching for around twenty minutes, we had no luck with the Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies. We did however find lots of sundew, but the sundew here looked stranger than the Round-leaved Sundew I usually see. Then, Eddie told me that this was actually Oblong-leaved Sundew, a rare plant which Eddie said grows in good numbers here. 

More than happy with how the day had been going, we then decided to slowly make our way back to the car, still looking out for wildlife along the way. Suddenly, Kevin pointed out a Marsh Harrier distantly with a few Buzzards. After having a quick look at it, we continued on through the marsh. A few minutes later, I spotted a dark raptor quartering low over the marsh. It was the Marsh Harrier from earlier! It showed amazingly well, flying close by and even dropping down a few times. I had seen quite a few Marsh Harriers in the past but this was hands down one of the best encounters I have had of this bird. 

We then got to an area, just further upstream from where we saw the Migrant Hawkers, which Eddie said was good for Golden-ringed Dragonflies. After a bit of searching, we couldn't spot any Golden-ringed Dragonfly, but I did spot another Hornet Robberfly resting on top of a pile of pony poo.

We then got to a small pond which Eddie said was very reliable for Emperor Dragonfly. Straight away, a male Emperor Dragonfly came into view as it patrolled the pond, followed by a female Emperor which started egg-laying just metres away from where I was standing. I then spotted three Small Red Damselflies by the front of the pond, one which showed very well and another two which were in tandem but very flighty. We also spotted a Common Hawker, which is actually quite a rare dragonfly despite the name. We then made our way back to the car, flushing many Brown China Mark moths, finding a tiny blue Oak Eggar caterpillar and spotting a female Southern Hawker, along with many more Keeled Skimmers, which we had been seeing in great numbers throughout our time on the marsh, on the way back. We then decided to try a site for Purple Hairstreaks nearby, but dipped them since it was still quite early in the day (around 3:00pm) for this butterfly. I did however find a Spotted Flycatcher which I was quite surprised to see at first, but I later found out that they breed nearby.

We then made our way back home, but decided to have a quick stop at Gogarth NWWT (near the Great Orme) to try and see if I could find a new butterfly for me, the Brown Argus. Since it was quite late in the day, I wasn't holding out much hope, but surprisingly, I managed to spot a small butterfly fluttering around, before it landed right in front of me. I took a picture of it but since I didn't know how to identify Brown Argus off just the underwing, I wasn't sure if it was our target butterfly, or just one of the two species of Blues you could find here. 

Suddenly, the butterfly opened its wings, revealing its identity as a Brown Argus. I had seen Northern Brown Argus (which is a separate species to Brown Argus) last year in Durham, but this was my first time seeing the much more common Brown Argus. 

I then went to the spot where I had seen Silver-studded Blues earlier this year to try and find the endemic Great Orme Grayling (Hipparchia Semele ssp. Thyone) which is a subspecies of the Grayling only found on the western side of the Great Ormes Head. Unfortunately, it was too late in the day to see any butterflies, but we did spot a juvenile Peregrine which swooped in and landed on a rock halfway up the hill, before flying away to the eastern side of the hill. We also spotted a few Choughs flying over as they made their iconic "chee-ow" call. The perfect end to an amazing day!

Overall, a superb day with many new invertebrates seen!