The Deskbound Birder: Black-tailed Skimmer

Showing posts with label Black-tailed Skimmer. Show all posts

Friday, 18 July 2025

Silverlake, Corfe Castle and Middlebere Heath, Dorset - 9th July

After a bird survey in Dorchester i made a couple of stops in Dorchester for some invertebrate species I had not seen before. First was at Silverlake, Crossways where last year Scarlet Darter bred, this year there have been counts of up to 20 individuals and so I was fairly confident of encountering this stunning species. My first wander of the lake produced a male Lesser Emperor, a relatively regular migrant that I had also not seen before in the UK. The second circuit of the pond produced a Red-veined Darter, a species I had seen once before in the UK. The third circuit produced the target species, a stunning male Scarlet Darter warming itself it is characteristic vertical posture, but not just one, at least four individuals.

Scarlet Darter

Red-veined Darter

Lesser Emperor

Black-tailed Skimmer

Common Darter

I then headed to Corfe Castle where I parked at the National Trust car park and cafe and quickly encountered Lulworth Skipper on the grassy railway embankment within the car park, a new UK butterfly species for me. I crossed the road and wandered a short way around the banks of the castle seeing several more individuals, all less than fresh and a little past their best, but, a very distinctive, if rather dull, little butterfly.

Lulworth Skipper

With some quick successes early in the day I then headed to Middlebere Heath for the stunning Purbeck Mason Wasp. A large nesting aggregation of which is present along the track running away from the parking layby. Also present along the path were many other species of hymenoptera with their associated host parasites including two scarce species of bee-fly, Heath Bee-fly and Mottled Bee-fly. It was now very hot and I headed home and back to work after a very early morning and some fantastic invertebrate sightings in Dorset.

Purbeck Mason Wasp

Mottled Bee-fly

Heath Bee-fly

Saturday, 12 July 2025

Hampshire Dragonflies - Cadnam Common Pond 4th July

In my quest to see all of the regularly breeding dragonflies and damselflies in Hampshire this year I had tried a couple of sites for Emerald Damselfly but with no luck and so, with a tip off from Steve, I met Steve and Niall at Cadnam Common, a site that I had never visited before. From the roadside layby we headed out across the common to the rapidly shrinking pond where before very long Steve located Emerald Damselfly around a clump of Juncus. Over the next couple of hours we enjoyed the abundant insect life around this pond with a good range of Odonata, including my first Hampshire Common Darter of the year as well as a few notable flies - you gotta love flies to appreciate them!

Emerald Damselfly

Common Darter

Common Darter - A freshly emerged individual

Black-tailed Skimmer

Keeled Skimmer

Emperor Dragonfly

Small Red Damselfly

The localised Brown Heath Robberfly

The highly localised dung-fly Scatomyza scybalaria, a species requiring very wet, dung enriched mud in which to breed

Not an especially rare species but this large female Tabanus sudeticus was egg laying, a behaviour I had not observed before. The image below shows the completed egg mass.

Egg mass of Tabanus sudeticus

Tuesday, 10 June 2025

Hampshire Dragonflies - Hatchet Moor and Crockford Bridge 10th June

With a good selection of the spring butterflies under my belt it was time for me to head to a couple of New Forest sites to get my Hampshire Odonata list underway in my quest to see all the regular butterfly and Odonata species in the county.

I started at Hatchet Small Pond to the south of the main Hatchet Pond where the only new species for the year was Black-tailed Skimmer, but I did also see Azure Damselfly, Large Red Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly and Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Black-tailed Skimmer

Large Red Damselfly

Blue-tailed Damselfly - Note the red mite on top of the abdomen and the line of dark coloured mites on the underside of the abdomen.

Common Blue Damselfly

I then headed to Crockford Bridge, a classic New Forest Odonata site, but by now it was a little cloudy and the wind had really gathered strength and so it was not easy finding species. However, after a little while I saw Southern Damselfly, Beautiful Demoiselle, Broad-bodied Chaser, Keeled Skimmer and a glimpse of a probable Gold-ringed Dragonfly but it was swept away by the wind before I could be sure. The walk back to the car produced my first Silver-studded Blue of the year and an Emperor Dragonfly.