An exciting local sighting

I went for a walk around Gosforth Nature Reserve yesterday afternoon with friends Kate & David who were passing through Newcastle on their way north.  Half way round the reserve we saw a large dragonfly with brown wings which could only be a brown hawker, but we were looking into the sun and I didn't have a camera so it was difficult to be sure. As the weather was good I went back this morning and in over two hours and over 300 photos I had just these four worth keeping.

These photos were hard won as I was shooting into the sun and the dragonfly was always on the move.  They do confirm it is a male brown hawker (Aeshna grandis), a rare record for the North East and a first for the reserve.  Unlike other hawkers it never hovered and on the few times it rested it was always out of view in the reeds.  So the only photos I could get were flight shots.  (I use manual mode, 1/1000s at f/6.3 with auto ISO and manual focus.)

Brown hawkers are found through most of central, southern and eastern England but they are rare in the south west and the north and in Wales.

Although there are brown hawker records from Northumberland they are very few and the only validated record I can find for the last 20 years is mine from Wallington two years ago.  By coincidence the British Dragonfly Society's report on the State of Dragonflies in Britain and Ireland 2021 was published this week.  The good news is that more species are doing well than are declining.  Reasons for increasing occupancy and species richness include increased recording intensity (ie more people submitting more records), restoration and creation of habitat, and rising temperatures from climate change.  This is the report's page on brown hawker.

The outlier

My poor mother is used to me getting distracted by dragonflies when we go for a walk.  This time we were going to see the walled garden at Wallington Hall in Northumberland when I spotted a dragonfly over the Garden Pond.  We could both see it was brown although it flew almost constantly and it was obviously a hawker.  Each time it landed it disappeared high into the trees out of view.  Eventually I got lucky and it landed in view.

It is a poor photo but good enough to confirm our identification as a brown hawker.  One other photo shows the dragonlfy had landed to eat a fly it had caught - you can make out the wings of its prey.

I tried a flight shot but it was very difficult in the light.  This was the only one worth keeping, just a record shot.

Brown hawkers are rare in Northumberland.  There are no previous records in iRecord (the national online recording system used by the British Dragonfly Society) since it began in 2009.  The BDS Atlas of Dragonflies in Britain and Ireland published in 2014 says:

In northern England it is on the edge of its current range in Northumberland with only isolated, mainly historical, records with little evidence of a breeding population.  The most recent are single records from Morpeth and Alnwick in 2003 and 2004 respectively.

The national distribution pattern is strange.  The brown hawker is found across the Midlands (Mum even has them in her garden) and the South and East but is absent from the South West and from most of Wales.  It is also not found in Scotland.  My record is shown on the map in the outline of the vice-county of South Northumberland at the top.

So this is the first local record for 15 years.  My guess is that a small local breeding population might exist but this could also be an exploring single male from farther south.  I'll try to get back in the next few days to have another look.

End of year favourites - Farther afield

This post is the last of my end-of-year reviews and shows a few photos from beyond Newcastle and Northumberland. The most exciting bee of the year was the wool carder bee which I found in Regent's Park in London.  These are ♂ above and ♀ below.

Other sightings in or near the village where my mother lives in Northamptonshire were brown hawker (♂)

Southern hawker (♂)

Fieldfare

Hairy-footed flower bee (♂)

Beautiful demoiselle (immature ♂ and ♀)

Tawny mining bee (♀ above, ♂ below)

And in Co Durham a red squirrel.

I wish you a Happy New Year.

A walk along the river bank

I went for a walk along the bank of the River Nene, near where I grew up and close to the Ox Hovel that I wrote about recently.  This time I was looking for dragonflies and almost as soon as I crossed the coach bridge I saw several hawkers flying along the bank and across the meadow.  I could see at least three brown hawkers but the first one I saw at rest was this male southern hawker (Aeshna cyanea).

Then I spotted a male brown hawker (Aeshna grandis) low down in the foliage at the edge of the meadow.

I crept around to get a clearer view.

And he let me get quite close.

He was still there when I decided to go farther along the bank.  A few metres on I found another southern hawker.

And then another.

And another.

I walked as far as the Ox Hovel but this time there were no solitary bees to be seen - I expect their season is already over.  When I walked back the bank was in shadow and there were no dragonflies flying.  I think they had all gone over to the other bank to stay in the sunshine.

Brown hawker

Finding and identifying brown hawker dragonflies isn't that difficult but photographing them is.  Last year I managed to get a photo of one slightly secondhand male for the first time.

Last weekend I found some more at Croome Park in Worcestershire.  A few females were ovipositing - the first females I have seen.

As usual the males were flying non-stop on patrol so I tried a few flight shots.

I haven't yet seen brown hawker here in the North East although according to the British Dragonfly Society website they do get this far north.  I'll be keeping my eyes open. 

Dragon quest

For two years I have been trying without success to take a photo of a brown hawker dragonfly.  I have seen plenty but they seem to fly constantly when in view and then suddenly disappear.   Finally I struck lucky last week.

Brown hawkers typically rest low down in grass and vegetation and this is how this one was when we first saw it.

Fortunately the sun had gone in and the dragonfly seemed happy to rest while I took a few (dozen!) photos.  This is a male with blue eyes, a waisted abdomen and extra blue markings on S2. 

The next target now is a female brown hawker!