Another very hot day and a good one for insects, hot conditions allow them to be especially active as they do not need to spend time sitting in the sun to warm up as they would on a more normal English summer’s day. I saw my first Blashford silver-washed fritillary of the year, they are regular in small numbers, but never common on the reserve.
silver-washed fritillary
Later I came across a pair of brown argus, these are the start of the second generation for this species this year.
brown argus pair
Brown argus are one of the “Blues” but one that forgot this and so is not blue. The same area of grass was also hiding several stridulating Roesel’s bush-cricket, I am quite pleased that I can still hear these as they are quiet high frequency and so one of the species that slip away as we get older. If you do get to see one the pale line around the lower edge of the pronotum is an identifying character.
Roesel’s bush-cricket
However the highlight of the day was none of these fine insects. After lunch I went over to Ellingham Pound to check how the common tern chicks were doing, the answer was just fine and it looks as though all seven will be flown off very soon. It is a good place to see dragon and damselflies and one of the only regular places on the reserve for small red-eyed damselfly and a quick check found one floating on some algae. I then started to look at the dragonflies in the hope of finding a lesser emperor, as there have been quite few in the country recently and one was reported from Ibsey Water a couple of days ago. After seeing a couple of emperor dragonfly, a distinctive male lesser emperor shot past, after many attempts I got a couple of shots, not great, but I only had a 60mm lens with me!
lesser emperor male
The mainly dark abdomen with pale blue “saddle” is what identifies it. As I waited for it to skim past again I inevitably snapped other dragonflies too, when I looked at these pictures later I think one of them shows a female lesser emperor.
female
The lesser emperor is a migrant from the south, it used to be regarded as very rare but is getting more common, especially in warm summers and certainly tries to breed here now. It seems it is another species that is trying to colonise thanks to warming temperatures. The Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) seem to be especially responsive to these changes with many species spreading across Europe dramatically in the last couple of decades.
Elsewhere on the reserve there were at least three common sandpiper on Ibsley Water where there was also a juvenile little egret and, at the end of the day, 3 adult yellow-legged gull. I also found that the pair of Mediterranean gull on Long Spit had managed to fledge a single chick, or at least I could only find one. Although they have nested with us before I cannot be completely certain they have raised a chick to flying on Ibsley Water previously.
Hopefully it will cool down a bit next week and I can get some of the paths trimmed, they certainly need it! I had intended to try today but it was just too hot.
Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve 
The female emperor is Anax imperator
Thanks for this, I have spent a long time looking at the image tying to establish with certainty which it is, I confess the guides I have did not seem to be very helpful. Which character clinches the ID for you? The thorax colour looks like imperator, but the rest seemed better for lesser, I confess it did look a bit robust though. Males are so much easier!
Hi Bob. The thorax colour is green rather than brown, the basal ring to S2 is green rather than yellow (although immature imperators have a yellow ring to confuse things!), S1 is green and not brown. Hope that helps – hope to see your male Lesser tomorrow. Paul
Thanks, being colour-blind does not help with this kind of thing, greens and browns are especially problematic. I did have doubts as I said. If you are looking on the Pound I saw the male along the southern shore, I suspect there were two present.
I should have added that I think the guides are unhelpful by illustrating a female with a ‘rather blue’ abdomen – all the ones I’ve seen have been rather drab!