Please the read introduction text on this post first
HERE
(which also has some other useful info)First of all sorry for the lack of updates, I’ve heard through the grapevines of reports being posted elsewhere in the last week, but until today I haven’t had a decent view since Saturday, due to the weather not being great and getting lunchbreaks too late in the day. So here is a quick summary.
Sat 25/7 Cloudy with some sunny patches – 1 male seen at the ramp and the other side of the pond around midday (sometimes) when the sun came out.
Sun 26/7 Raining, didn’t go to the park to look!
Mon 27/7 1 probably glimpsed distantly at 2.40pm
Weds 29/7 No sign but another later lunchbreak around 2.30pm. Was told and have seen photos of a male basking by the wooden totum pole statues on the right of the main boardwalk path (see bottom of 2 black arrows on new map).
Thurs 30/7 No sign, but couldn’t get to pond until nearly 3pm. Found out later 3 were around the pond around midday!
Fri 31/7 Today. Sunny all morning, Marc heath and 3 others got some stunning views of up to 3 males, and he got some superb photos, I arrived (about 12.30pm) as the sun started to hide behind cloud and the fun was tailing off. Managed a couple of OK in flight shots and dodgy angled perched shots, Marc’s put mine to shame though!
Les, another local photographer pointed out how fresh Wednesdays and today’s dragonflies looked. Perhaps the result of another wave of fresh emergences?
I hung around until 1.30pm, but heading back I spotted the a male SMH hawking around the ponds at the North end of the boardwalk (see top of 2 black arrows on new map), actually flying around the toilet block with the livingroof at one point.
Anyone going to look this weekend please read the notes about trampling in the link at the start of this post.
Also be careful with ID’s as the migrant hawkers (Aeshna mixta) are now on the wing, and some of the males can get deceptively blue! Check for the yellow sides to the thorax and thin brown lines on the southern migrant. Its also worth checking any female migrants closely (for the yellow thorax sides) as there maybe a female southern migrant among them, something that hasn’t been spotted in Wat Tyler since 2011 (and rarely elsewhere!)!
I’ve updated the map here too with new locations for this year, you cna download it here
And please post any sightings on here or the BDS sightings page, along with any behaviour observations too 🙂