Deluge delusion

The past week or so has seen some fairly wild weather for Summer, with Storm Floris bringing winds gusting up to 75mph, followed by a few days of localised heavy downpours flattening any garden vegetation still standing and the spirits of every gardener.

Some wildlife can cope with this sort of weather, some can't, so it was with some trepidation that, yesterday, we carried out August's monitoring survey of a nearby pond at a private site on the edge of town. Usually, and for no specific reason other than convenience, any site photographs are taken from the water's edge, effectively looking across the pond. I tend not to have the owner's property in the frame as a matter of privacy, so that you, dear reader, normally have a view of Brinkies Brae, the hill behind the site.

For a change, and purely because after the survey we were looking for more insects in the lee of a tumbled-down wall, here's a different view, looking across the small plateau where the pond is situated and across to the hills of Hoy.

At the water's edge, I was relieved to discover that there were still dragonflies and damselflies to be seen, some suffering from plenty of wing wear, likely as a consequence of the recent challenging conditions. Others were very fresh-looking, and we did find individuals which were in the process of emerging from their aquatic larval stage into free-flying aerial imagos.

Mature and consenting adults of several species were busy mating and ovipositing. Emerald Damselflies were carefully laying eggs onto the stems of individual aquatic plants. Black Darter dragonflies have a slightly more scattergun method, flying together, the pair flick eggs onto a damp substrate or the water's surface, where the sticky ova adhere to a piece of vegetation. With these two species, the eggs won't hatch until the following Spring.

 

A male Black Darter

Black Darter close-up

Here's a short video of a pair of Black Darters ovipositing together at the water's edge. I'm not sure how much say the female has as to where the eggs are laid. It must be a wild ride.

For this visit to the pond, we were accompanied by several more pairs of eyes, with a few friends joining us to help spot wildlife. My thanks, therefore, to D for finding this strange object which was attached to a submerged plant stem (and visible through the clear water).

Our best guess as to its identity was prompted by sightings of several Brown China-mark Moths in the vicinity. This species of moth is unusual in having an aquatic larval stage, so I think this is likely to be the oval case which the larva constructs from leaf fragments. Perhaps.

A male Emerald Damselfly

The only other Odonata species we found was a single Blue-tailed Damselfly, but there were plenty of other insects around, including hoverflies, bumblebees and butterflies. It was something of a relief to find that the stormy weather hadn't prematurely ended the flight season. I should really have more faith in the resilience of Nature.

With thanks to MT, H and DA, JT and YF for their company and spotting skills, and especially to YH for allowing us access to the site.