Teeming with dragons

There were some days of decent weather in August but, sadly, not many of those were when I was free to drop everything, don my wellies and head off to look for dragons. Thankfully, the last weekend of the month offered up a Saturday of suitable meteorology and we headed to a nearby site, armed with hope, expectation and a picnic.

This pond is on land owned by an adjacent B&B guesthouse. Late last Summer we were invited to survey the waterbody and it was an absolute odonatological revelation, so this year we have tried to monitor it in a more rigorous way. I should say that I struggle to find sites to monitor in Orkney, not from any lack of intent on my part, but mainly due to ornithological considerations. Many pools, or the habitat they are located in, are breeding sites for rare birds and so are effectively out of bounds until at least August so as not to disturb their nesting attempts. Don't get me wrong, this is a good thing. Birds with extra protection include Red-throated Diver, Hen Harrier, Merlin, Peregrine, White-tailed Eagle and Golden Eagle. I wouldn't want to be disturbing any of those, especially when none of the dragonflies or damselflies on the Orkney list are rare in national terms. In fact, a few of them are doing well here, like Common Hawker and Emerald Damselfly, in comparison to their brethren south.
 

Therefore, having finally found a pond without these restrictions, and with an owner who is keen to hear about its resident species, we have visited several times throughout what has been laughingly referred to as Summer.

The pond has a shallower end, where vegetation is reclaiming a narrow channel between the bank and a small island. Full of sphagnum and Marsh Cinquefoil, it was a favourite egg-laying site for dozens of Black Darters. This species oviposits in tandem, whilst in flight, with a jerky flicking action which fires the fertilised eggs, coated with a sticky substance, onto the chosen damp substrate.

We circumnavigated the waterbody, noting species seen and any life cycle activity, shorthand for pairs mating, females egg-laying, new adults emerging, first flights or shed larval skins. There were three species present: a few Blue-tailed Damselflies; many Emerald Damselflies; and a bazillion Black Darter dragonflies.

A male Emerald Damselfly

Another Emerald

A pair of Emeralds egg-laying

Emerald Damselflies egg-lay in a more sedate way to Black Darters, still with the male in attendance, but the pair are not airborne. The female injects a single egg at a time into a slit cut into a stem of a water plant, sometimes this can be below the water's surface.

A pair of Black Darters mating

A male Black Darter which gate-crashed our picnic

A recently-emerged female Black Darter, still pale in colour, with translucent rather than transparent wings, and with her wing spots white, not yet the black of a mature adult

After several hours of watching all the ode activity, as we squelched our way back to terra firma, we spotted a Common Blue butterfly, looking a little ragged as it basked in the warm sunshine. However it was in quite good condition compared to the Painted Lady butterfly we found when we arrived home, which looked like it had been through the wars.

Now that we're into September, I am not sure whether we will have another monitoring visit to the Brinkies pond. In most years, here in the northern outskirts of the British Isles, dragon sightings decline swiftly through the month, and very rarely continue into October. I shall leave you with one more snippet of ode info. All the eggs we saw being laid by the Black Darters and Emerald Damselflies will remain as eggs through the Winter and won't hatch until the Spring. The warm Spring of 2024 certainly seemed to help the Emeralds, as they began emerging more than a week earlier than usual.