Damselflies and Treecreepers in the sun

Wednesday 27th May 2015 - another look for Dragonflies today as the sun had emerged, warming up the river water and the banks

There was a breeze but plenty of shelter today under the steep banks of the river. 

More Banded Demoiselle Damselflies (male and female) were emerging in places where the meandering river was slow-moving - but not yet in large numbers. Beautiful Demoiselle Damselflies were seen mainly over and perching on nettles and stalks on the river banks and a few Large Red Damselflies were seen on and low flying over the riverside grasses.

What looked at first like a large yellow wasp or hornet flying over the nettles turned out to be an immature Broad-bodied Chaser once it had landed to warm up on a nettle stalk. Another was seen nearby amongst the nettles. (They say that these dragonflies are seen on ponds and lakes but not rivers - well they were certainly flying along the river today but may have emerged from a nearby pond.... ).

There were huge numbers of Mayflies over the river together with midges - attracting the attention of warblers. Blackcaps were the most numerous with not a sound from the chiffchaffs at first.

Looking towards an area of mature Blackthorn, which formed a sheltered spot, a treecreeper was seen foraging, moving quickly up one of the Blackthorn trunks, whilst another treecreeper flew across to a bare diagonal trunk in the sun and shuffled itself with wings and tail fanned out, head on one side, flat on the bark, sunbathing. I have never seen one not on the move before and certainly not sunbathing!

It was very good to see them as they have been elusive recently, probably busy nesting.

In the same area there were several long-tailed tits moving about or just perched, calling. These were newly-fledged juveniles, together with some very young blue tits. 

River bank Willows have prolific catkins this year, filing the air with

floating down, forming soft drifts under the trees where it is blown by the wind

Whitethroats were singing too along their river bank territories and a single garden warbler and one willow warbler were heard. Later two chiffchaffs started to sing, confirming their presence.

Over at the Scrape, with still a good amount of water in it and marginal vegetation such as grasses doing well, a swallow was seen foraging low over the water.

The 'Scrape' on 27th May 2015, attracting swallows.