By 12th May, the days were warming up but no sign of Dragonflies or Damselflies over the river - was it still too cold, too windy, too dark? There were plenty of spiders throwing themselves and their webs across from stalk to stalk on the dry old Dock plants from last year around the fruit trees, now in blossom. The embankments were alive with house sparrows flying out of the hedges to land on the swaying stalks, now stripped of seeds by goldfinches. Blue tits and great tits joined in - what were they doing? They were all still feeding young in the nest and had found a source of food, extremely nutritious and easy to catch - spiders.
Out in the open many adult starlings were foraging the hard way - by fly-catching on the wing, zig-zagging across the sky. The just-fledged young birds were calling noisily to be fed, being quite helpless at this stage.
The 14th May 2018, a fine day, all day started with loud yaffles from a green woodpecker, with singing common whitethroats. Blackcaps and a song thrush were singing too against a loud background of goldfinches in a thicket. House sparrows were out foraging again but the day was special - the first Damselfly of the year appeared. It was a female Banded Demoiselle damselfly flying low over the river bank then perching on a nettle leaf to rest. This was not late when compared with other years, it just seemed to be late as the first Calopteryx Damselfly (a Beautiful Demoiselle male) had appeared on 24th April last year 2017, but this was unusually early (see entries for 28th and 30th April 2017). On 15th May this year the first Large Red Damselfly was seen, with three others chasing on a damp well vegetated pond. The following day three swifts were seen across the river under cloud in the wind.
A male Banded Demoiselle Damselfly (Calopteryx splendens) on river bank bramble leaf on 19th May 2018 watching out for passing insect prey.
On Friday 18th May 2018 (another fine day) it was all happening - with the first Beautiful Demoiselle Damselflies appearing, males and females ,with good numbers of Banded Demoiselles, mostly males.
In the same area, common whitethroats were singing and displaying with singing blackcaps, song thrush, a garden warbler, a goldcrest, robins, dunnocks and a few starlings. Orange-tip and Brimstone butterflies ranged over the nettles, a common buzzard flew overhead, a kestrel circled over the river and a carrion crow was seen chasing a Red Kite.
To signal the return of summer, house martins were confirmed to be nesting again in the town centre!
On 19th May - a sudden flowering of Rosa canina some shoots having climbed to the canopy of old Field Maple and Hawthorns:
One of the first of the Rosa canina flowers this year
19th May .
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