Hawkers Hunting, Darters in Disguise, Brown Bombers

and Spitfires Reborn

Whoosh!

What was that?
That was your life mate.
That was quick, do I get another one?
Sorry mate, that’s your lot.

John Cleese in Fawlty Towers 

Sitting in my little office, it’s only 7pm, but pitch black outside. A month has evaporated since my last post and the heating has been turned on for a few days now.

To rub it in, the i player (on shuffle) has delivered Who knows where the time goes (Sandy Denny with Fairport Convention) :-

“Across the evening sky all the birds are leaving
But, how can they know it's time for them to go?
Before the winter fire, I will still be dreaming
I have no thought of time”

Followed by Ramble On (Led Zep):-

“Leaves are falling all around, It's time I was on my way.
Thanks to you, I'm much obliged for such a pleasant stay.
But now it's time for me to go. The autumn moon lights my way.
For now I smell the rain, and with it pain, and it's headed my way”.

I think you get the picture.

 

Now, for something completely different (you can’t say I don’t know how to milk a theme).

Back in those halcyon days of August, I had intended to write a small, pictorial, piece on local dragonflies and tell you about a chance encounter with an extremely interesting gent and so, albeit, quite a bit later than intended, I will.

This summer has been really good for spotting dragonflies at our local reserve. The normal selection of Hairys, Emperors, Broad-bodied, Black-tailed and Four-spotted Chasers and Brown Hawkers kicked off the season, with Southern and Migrant Hawkers, Ruddy and Commons Darters coming off the bench, intent on going as far as possible, into extra-time.

Having spent much of last year trying to identify the not always obvious differences between the Common and Ruddy Darters I was extremely pleased this year to get a few snaps that I think help show the characteristics of each:

 

The male Ruddy Darter (left) and Common Darter (below) are not too difficult to distinguish. As you can see the Ruddy Darter has a much deeper red body (although this does vary according to maturity). The Common Darter has the fairly obvious yellow patches on the side of his thorax.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The girls present a bit more of a challenge. For me the easiest way to be sure is by looking at the legs. The Ruddy Darter (left) has all black stockings whilst the Common Darter (below), has yellow stripes down the backs of her legs. There are other subtle differences, but as long as you can get close (or a photo), then the legs seem, for me, to be the best indicator. The leg stripes work for males as well if you are struggling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another two species which I got a bit muddled at times last year were the Migrant and Southern Hawker. No doubt the experienced Ode Spotter thinks they are as different as chalk and cheese, but for the benefit of those, who, like me, are just getting to know their dragonflies, I thought I would show a couple of pictures taken at the back end of this summer which, I hope, help differentiate the two species.

 

The Southern Hawker, on the left, contains a fair bit more green on its thorax and the upper dots of it's body. The Migrant Hawker (below) has a brown thorax with yellow patches.

The Migrant Hawkers also appear to be one of the more curious dragonflies and will often fly quite close to you and hover, whilst they give you the once over. The Southern Hawker seems to prefer the shade and will patrol up and down pathways under the cover of over-hanging trees.

 

 

 

 

 

Now bear, with me on this next bit, but, if in WWII aircraft parlance, the Darters are Spitfires and Hurricanes and the Chasers are Bristol Beaufighters and de Havilland Mosquitos, then for me the Emperor and Brown Hawker are respectively the Avro Lancaster and Handley Page Halifax.

 

You see, I reckon, that whilst the Emperor is the big, bold, brazen, master of the skies, that everyone knows, the Brown Hawker is the unglamorous, workman like sort of Dragonfly, that battles on through all life’s flak and gets the job done: a kind of Brown Bomber.

 

Not convinced? Then as the late Mr Frankie Howard would say “please yourselves”. Undaunted the metaphors continue.

 

I failed to successfully capture a Brown Bomber in the Nikon’s searchlight for all of last year and for most of this. I finally caught up with this tired old gent, taking a well earned rest between sorties, you can see by the state of his wings that he has certainly seen some action, but otherwise appears serviceable.

 

The Brown (Bomber) Hawker

 

Ok I’ll come to the point of all the Biggles banter. One of the many benefits in getting involved in conservation work, is the wonderful diversity of people you meet, many of who, hide lights under their bushels, that you could just never guess.

One such gentleman, that I had the privilege to share a break-time coffee with, whilst scrub bashing at the reserve, was Peter Arnold. The conversation initially turned to photography, Peter it seemed, enjoyed photographing aircraft, but it soon transpired that his interest with planes, was far more intimate and hands on than I could ever guess. Peter bought and restored old Spitfires.

I cannot remember exactly how many Spitfire projects Peter told me had been involved in altogether (7 rings a bell), but he has shown me pictures of three of the Spitfires that he has been involved in restoring and I am sure there have been quite a few more.

 

Peter has recently completed Spitfire Survivors, which is described as the definitive reference book on the history of each and every survivor of the legendary World War II fighter aircraft.

Here is a truly magnificent photograph that Peter kindly sent me of a Seafire XVII he bought from a scrapyard back in 1973 and which is now flying.

 

Photograph by and copyright Peter Arnold

Scrambled metaphors, oh yes!