The roe deer rut

The roe deer rut takes place from mid July to mid August so is now at its peak.  The bucks are busy trying to intimidate each other and impress the does.  The first video shows an older buck chasing off a younger one.  There was an element of good fortune in this video because the bucks are travelling much too fast to trigger the camera in time.  However, a few seconds earlier a kid had appeared at the side of the frame to start the recording but then disappeared, perhaps because it heard them coming.  The slow motion replay is at 1/8th speed.

Although mating occurs now the pregnancies won't begin until January after delayed implantation, so the young will be born next May.  This year's kids are now about two months old and must be wondering what all the excitement is about.  Here a doe runs off to avoid the younger buck, leaving him and her kid looking rather puzzled.

The bucks follow the does around to show their interest and to be ready when the doe shows hers.  Here the older buck was trying to look cool as he followed the doe through the woods but he misjudged a jump and fell in the water.  Let's hope she wasn't watching.

In a couple of weeks' time it will all calm down again so we'll hope for a bit of excitement from something else on the trail cameras.

The Norfolk Hawker

This was perhaps my favourite find on my recent trip to East Anglia.  The Norfolk Hawker was previously confined to Norfolk  (in this country) but is also known as the Green-eyed Hawker (Aeshna isosceles).  Unlike most male hawkers the patrolling Norfolk Hawkers stop frequently making photography a bit easier.

Because the weather was (very) warm they flew into the evening, providing the possibility of this type of shot.

In between posing they were continually on the move so flight shots were more challenging.

I had only one brief sighting of a female ovipositing.

The recent story of the Norfolk Hawker is amazing.  In my 1977 edition of Cyril Hammond's The Dragonflies of Great Britain and Ireland the post 1960 distribution was restricted to only five 10km squares in the Norfolk Broads (solid circles).

By the 1983 second edition that had increased to six 10km squares but it was described as "under threat from drainage schemes and from pollution by nitrogenous fertilisers".

Since then the Norfolk Hawker has undergone a dramatic range expansion.  In my 2014 third edition of Smallshire & Swash's Britain's Dragonflies this was the distribution map.

In the latest 2025 fifth edition this is the map.

And here is the latest (July 2026) distribution map from iRecord which includes a record from an undisclosed site in north Northumberland in 2025.

This is one of several species of dragonfly "benefitting" from climate change and probably from habitat improvement with the creation of more gravel pits and other well vegetated lakes and ponds.  Despite the recent changes it is still listed as endangered on the British Odonata Red List.  If the trend continues I may soon be able to see it locally in the North East.

East Anglian ladybirds

On holiday last month I couldn't resist also looking for ladybirds.  Wicken Fen has a lot of grassy meadows as well as wetlands so that seemed a promising place to search.  16-spot Ladybird is a grassland species in the south and was one I was keen to find.  Unlike most ladybirds it feeds on pollen, nectar and fungi.

14-spot Ladybird is pretty widespread and is found in a variety of habitats.  This one is quite pale, probably newly emerged. 

We do find 24-spot Ladybirds in the North East but only in a few localised places.  In East Anglia I found them everywhere I looked and in large numbers.  This is another vegetarian, feeding on grass and red campion leaves.

This is a 24-spot Ladybird larva.

The 22-spot Ladybird is another vegetarian.  This one feeds on mildew on umbellifers but is found in grassland.

Rhyzobius litura is a microladybird and is sometimes known as Meadow Ladybird.

All these, plus 7-spot Ladybird and Harlequin Ladybird turned up in one session in one small patch of grassland.  A couple of days later I went to Cranwich Heath in West Norfolk which is sandy acid heath.  I was hoping to find an Ant-nest Ladybird but did find an Angle-spot Ladybird, Scymnus frontalis.  This is another microladybird, not found here in the North East.  There were lots of 16-spot and 24-spot Ladybirds as well.

There are plenty more I have yet to find, mostly microladybirds and monthly in the south.  I'll have to arrange another holiday to see if I can find some.

East Anglian dragonflies

I booked a few days away in Wicken Fen last month, not knowing I would be in the epicentre of the red zone of the recent heatwave.  The temperature was over 30℃ every day, peaking at over 37℃, which might have been good for dragonflies but wasn't so good for me.  I was mainly out in the mornings and evenings but did manage to see some things I had never seen or never photographed before.

Wicken Fen is the National Trust's oldest nature reserve and is a haven for dragonflies.  The highlight perhaps were the Norfolk Hawkers which, unlike most other hawkers I have come across, were happy to pose for photos.  This is a male.

One species I had never seen before was Scarce Chaser, which certainly wasn't scarce there but doesn't get much farther north.  Here is a male.

And a mating pair, both looking a bit battered.

Similar in appearance but with clear wing bases and green eyes was this male Black-tailed Skimmer.

I saw several male Hairy Dragonflies but none would stop for a photo.  Then on the last morning I found female ovipositing.  Females are pretty shy so this was a good find and the first I have seen.  This is another species which doesn't get as far north as the North East. 

The Hairy Dragonfly was at the end of its flight period but also on the last morning I found a newly emerged female Southern Hawker, one we do see up here.

Also familiar were Emperor Dragonflies.

Because it isn't found in the North East I had hoped to see a Variable Damselfly, said to be common in Wicken Fen, but every blue damselfly I saw was either Common Blue or Azure.

Another one which doesn't get up here but which was common there was Red-Eyed Damselfly. Here a male.

And a mating pair.

Both at Wicken Fen and RSPB Lakenheath I found Banded Demoiselles.

Also photographed but not shown here were Four-spotted Chaser, Common Blue Damselfly, Azure Damselfly and Common Darter.  Also seen but not photographed was Brown Hawker.

Sometimes it was even a bit too hot for the dragonflies.  They are said to go into the obelisk position, pointing at the sun like this female Ruddy Darter, to prevent overheating.  I had a wonderful few days down at Wicken Fen - ten or fifteen degrees cooler and it would have been perfect.

Stoat kits in the garden

This week has seen great excitement in my garden.  I was away for a few days and on the first morning back I saw a stoat outside the front door and later one on the drive.  There had been very little stoat action on the garden trail cameras while I was away but on Monday evening there were four stoat kits running up and down the drive so I knew something had changed.  They were so fast and unpredictable that photographing them was difficult.

Later I saw more playing on a tree stump in the meadow.

After seeing the kits on the stump I set up an extra trail camera.

Here is a brief view of what they got up to on the wall.

Several times the cameras picked up a kit carrying food.  The first one here has a vole which it doesn't want to share and the second is carrying what looks like a rabbit's head.

After only 48 hours they were gone but they saved the best till last.  I had been wondering whether there were four or five but you can see on the next video there were ten!  I presume this is mother and nine kits, assuming there weren't more out of view.  A stoat family moving en masse like this is known as a caravan.

Here's another edit of the video with a slow motion replay to help count the stoats.

Jenny MacPherson's book Stoats, Weasels, Martens & Polecats says that a stoat litter usually has six to nine kits which are born in April or May and become independent at about 12 weeks. The book also says 10 stoats will eat about 0.5 kg of meat a day which translates into a lot of voles and rabbit heads so I expect this last video was the mother rounding them all up to move on because they had eaten all the food.

The cameras are still in place so I'll know if any of the stoats return.  Although they didn't stay long I am just grateful they came while I was here to see them.