Brampton dragonflies and butterflies

I only occasionally photograph dragonflies and damselflies, the Odonata. My big zoom doesn’t give me the best results with these insects for some reason. However, I was at Brampton Wood yesterday for the recently emerged Black Hairstreak butterflies, of which I saw several dozen. Took a shorter zoom, 75-300mm instead of 150-600mm and tried my chances on snapping some dragonflies.

First in the frame was this lovely Black-tailed Skimmer, Orthetrum cancellatum. What a great scientific name.

And, here’s a male of the relatively common species Broad-bodied Chaser, Libellula depressa, coming into land on a stick protruding from Wayne’s Pond at Brampton Wood.

A Four-spotted Chaser, Libellula quadrimaculata, favoured the perching sticks in the pond too.

Another interesting dragon at Brampton Wood is the relatively rare Green-eyed Hawker, Aeshna isoceles. The isoceles is a reference to the yellow triangle on its second abdominal segment. It has an alternative vernacular name, Norfolk Hawker, this common name in the UK refers to its lasting presence in the county of Norfolk, although it was common in the Cambridgeshire Fens until the 1980s. It is known to exist in Suffolk and Kent, but is localised and scarce.

However, old Green Eyes is back…in Cambridgeshire. Although it remains fairly elusive it always was a rarity. Perhaps the species is benefiting partly from the creation of wetlands on the sites of old gravelworks in the county. It favours ponds, ditches, and marshes with dense vegetation and seems to rely on the aquatic plant Water-Soldier, Stratiotes aloides. There’s plenty of that in my garden pond, so fingers crossed.

Also spotted a Bumblebee Plumehorn, a type of hoverfly, Volucella bombylans.

There were also Brimstone and Garden Grass-veneer moths to be seen and Spindle Ermine nests, a few scattereLarge Skipper butterflies, several Speckled Wood butterfly and numerous Longhorn Beetle, a few European Hornet, but not much else readily photographable. However, there have been rather a lot of Green Oak Tortrix moths, Tortrix viridana, around in recent days so it was no surprise to see them on the oaks in Brampton Wood.

Target species of the day was the Black Hairstreak butterfly though, Satyrium pruni, of which I estimate I saw 40-50 over the course of the visit. They were all around the car park, near the pond, and vaguely on the two sites marked for visitors to observe them!