Season’s Greetings

Welcome on the start of a new season. Kent and Cornwall won the race with the first sightings on the 5th March. Reason enough to start keeping an eye out, and I’ve visited a few favourite haunts over the past week making the most of this glorious weather.

The first thing which became apparent was how dry it was. At this time last season my wellies were essential, but a somewhat dry winter has kept the ground dry without sacrificing the water bodies.

This of course means that the plant life has some catching up to do, and the early crop of butterflies are having to make do with a far smaller choice. What we needed was a few days of warm weather to raise the water temperatures enough to coax the Odo’s out, and this week was ideal to kick-start the emergence.

After coming up short at a few preferred sites this week – including the small pond down the road – we finally found our first Large Red of the season at the local nature reserve.

Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) - teneral male
Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) – teneral male

So well done Swanwick Nature Reserve! Here’s to a fulfilling season.