Damselfly guards pulling pad

Down at the River Wreak a drama is unfolding. A female Banded demoiselle damselfly (Calopteryx splendens) is hoping to be noticed. The problem for her is that males of her species often spend so much time fighting that they forget the reason why they are so territorial. The best thing she can do is pick a prominent spot, and look good. Another problem is that the best spots are attractive to other damselflies and so to maintain her demure stance on a good lily leaf she must fight females of her species and others. Sounds brutal but, since damselflies are one of the most ancient species to exist on the planet, it must work.

Over viewing the scene are females of other species. This Common Blue Damselfly - (Enallagma cyathigerum) is waiting for the lily leaf to become vacant. Females of this species are white by the way, but the males are blue. You can see in the video a male of this species check out the female above but she rejects him as he is the wrong species. When a male Banded demoiselle eventually does come along she will relinquish her pulling pad to another damselfly. This one will ahve to wait her turn.

Thanks to user Dogghound at Wild About Britain for help with the identification of these species.

Romance by the water

Down at Thornton Reservoir today most animals were coping in spite of the hot sun. Some species seemed almost to be enjoying it. Some Blue Tailed Damselflies, like what we saw yesterday, were busying themselves with acts of mating. The male Damselfly grabs the female by the neck with his tail and the female in response moves her tail under and in front of her to join with the base of his thorax. Normally this requires landing on a branch or leaf, but some seem to be able to fly as well whilst doing this. It gave me a good opportunity to get some close up shots without them flying away.
These photos were taking through my home made bigascope. That is a picture taken through a pair of binoculars backwards. Trust me it works! The female in this case was a yellow version of the male. In this picture you can see the blue tail of the male coming down and gripping the female behind the head. In a couple of days she will be full of eggs and will land at the edge of the water to lay them. To do this she will have to dive under water and affix them to some aquatic plant. The nymphs of this species will then predate on the larval stages of the midge and mosquito.

So knowing what we now know about the love lives of Damselflies, how do you explain the next picture?No, you are not looking at gay Damselflies, this is in fact a male female pair. Some females attract a mate by looking like males. Sounds strange but nothing is more attractive to some male Damselflies than a female that looks like a male. Others prefer their girls in yellow, green or brown.

There were other things of interest down at Thornton. In between being buzzed by kingfishers, attacked by robins we were serenaded by a male Reed Bunting (Emberiza Schoenicius). At the time I thought it was a tree sparrow, but it wasn't. It should be busy at the moment supporting its second brood, since its first brood will have fledged by now. Maybe he hasn't found a mate this year, maybe that is why he was singing to us.

There was a couple of other surprises down at Thornton today, but I think I'll save those for a rainy day.