A male Red-Veined Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii)

On a sunny, partly cloudy afternoon on the 13th August 2023, a dragon fly (4cm in length) with a reddish abdomen alighted onto an old railway sleeper on the bank of the main reservoir of the Lime Pits Nature Reserve, Rushall, UK (accessible on a footpath at the end of Leigh Road through a field of horses of Rushall Hall; via a car park at the end of Park Road just after crossing Daw End Bridge; via a barge on Rushall Canal approximately mid-way between Daw End and Riddian Bridges; or even on a bicycle along Beacon Way). Rushall Canal runs adjacent to the entrance on Park Road and the waters of the main reservoir are said to be connected via subterranean tunnels to Hatherton Lake located in the Arboretum. Long abandoned, the nature reserve is historically important as a place where lime was quarried to supply the steel furnaces of the Black Country. Its preservation has resulted in beautiful pools and lime suspended in channels of clear water, creating a shiny, entrancing marbling effect. It supports an abundance of flora and fauna including wild plums, shoals of bream, birdlife, rodents, foxes and numerous insects. One example thereof was photographed. Indeed, the dragonfly hovered tentatively in the sunshine before settling down and facing itself towards the direction of the main reservoir in the hope of darting out and capturing a midge or fly. According to the British Dragon-fly Society classification, it is a mature male Red-Veined Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii) with a red frons and thorax, a single pale stripe on the side of the thorax, red wing veins, yellow wing bases, eyes (brown above and blue below) and pale pterostigma outlined in black, that breeds in large shallow water bodied. Since the 1980’s, records show that it is a fairly frequent migrant, although colonies are not stable. Its flight period is prominent in June-August.

Posted on August 14, 2023 02:52 PM by rgcooper2023