At the end of July, we made a return visit to Claydon House for another dragonfly survey. The intervening two months had seen changes aplenty, with several flight seasons having ended and new ones starting. However, we were still in for some odo surprises, from the most unlikely of directions...
Predictably, we arrived at lunchtime. Just a coincidence... no, really! So by the time we'd eaten, it was just about optimal flying temperature and we set off to explore. A group of artists from Oxfordshire were displaying sculptures throughout the gardens, which made for quite a surreal experience. Especially when you're mooching about in the herbaceous borders for your first damselfly of the day and look up to discover this...
One of the artists, Daren Greenhow, makes all sorts of interesting things out of bits of old bicycles and other metallic stuff. You can find these dragonflies, plus much much more here. Our lass is now a bit worried that she might look out of the window one morning, to discover something akin to the Angel of the North gracing the edge of the pond. It's a thought.
Tearing ourselves back to reality, we managed to record 10 species for the afternoon. A Migrant Hawker in the vegetable garden; a whole host of damsels on the ornamental pond, Azure, Common Blue, Red-eyed and Small Red-eyed; an Emperor and a Brown Hawker over one of the lakes and Ruddy Darter, Emerald Damselfly and Blue-tailed Damselfly in the meadow below the house.
Over tea and cake, I pondered on the feasibility of introducing my bicycle to the concept of recycling metamorphosis.
1 comment:
I would recommend introducing your bicycle to the practicalities of Odo-hunting first... much more eco-friendly than a vehicle and quicker to stop when you spot that rare'un ;)
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