The family odo-roadtrip - the dragonfly trip report

Ophiogomphus cecilia - without a doubt one of the highlights of the trip was my first ever encounter with this species on the Örtze river in Germany. Just have to see one in northern Sweden now...

Finally got round to writing up the trip report for our three-week summer tour of western Europe looking for dragonflies. We managed to see an amazing 55 species, of which seven species were new for me, and some of those high on my most-wanted list!

Trip locations and species recorded can be found on this link. We were very lucky with the weather throughout, experiencing ideal flying conditions at all the sites visited. We missed two of our target species; Platycnemis acutipennis (too late?) and Sympetrum depressisculum at De Plateaux (although the first of the season was found on the same day by another observer at the site...). A successful trip and we are looking forward to a planned southern Spain trip next year.

Gomphus simillimus - another new gomphid, this one was scarce at the excellent Les Tourbières de Vendoire reserve in France. This site produced the most species of any we visited during our journey.

Sympecma paedisca - another much-wanted species finally tracked down in The Netherlands at Lozedijk. This species only has a few records in Sweden, all from Gotland and all by the same observer, I will try and get over there next year for another look.

Aeshna grandis

It was not all dragonflies though, this Titania's fritillary was a surprise tick for me at Riedenersee in Austria.

Coenagrion hylas proved hard to find at Riedenersee, eventually we picked up this single male. Males of this species engage in remarkably robust and rather butch patrolling reminiscent of Anisoptera.

Somatochlora alpestris - another tick in Austria at Sonnenkopf, found hawking over small wet flushes and pools in the mountains. We took a cable car stuffed with cuddly toys up to the resort area and did not have to walk far for dragonflies. A great place for kids. Aeshna caerulea was here too but not so obliging.

Somatochlora alpestris perched.

Crocothemis erythraea

Onychogaster forcipatus

Sympetrum meridionale, we found good numbers of these along the coast of Îl de Ré this year, some (like this one) carrying huge mite burdens. 

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Lestes barbarus, common as usual on Îl de Ré but not seen elsewhere.

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Aeshna affinis - another common species on Îl de Ré.

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Oxygastra curtisii - long extinct in the UK and my most-wanted dragonfly. Not anymore! We had several encounters on two rivers in France. Just need to go back to get better photos...

Postcard from the Pyrenees

Just finished a two-week tour of the French and Spanish Pyrenees. The birding was OK but spent most of my time looking at bugs and herps. This crazy sawfly on the first day is probably Rhogogaster viridis but there are a few lookalikes.

Sand lizards (Lacerta agilis) go high into the Pyrennees at the southern extremity of their range.

 This freshly emerged apollo (Parnassius apollo) looked good in the early morning light on Canigou.

 Lamping at night around one of the hotels in Spain proved great for amphibians and even produced my first southern smooth snake (Coronella girondica).

I have been wanting to see a male midwife toad (Alytes obstetricans) with a backpack of eggs for some time. It came to pass on this tour!

Fat toad.

We found two asp vipers on the tour, this one was nearly knelt on by one of the team!

 Great to get photos of large psammodromus (Psammodromus algirus) on the Spanish side, another species in a herp-rich tour.

With just over 1,000 species of plant logged by the botanists over the two week period, it was all rather bewildering for the non-botanist (nob?). I confined myself to enjoying the more way-out species as usual such as the splendid Leuzea conifera.

 One of my most enjoyable finds was of a pair fiery clearwing (Bembicia chrysidiformis) near Tremp. It has a widespread distribution, just sneaking into Kent in the UK, but is never easy to find.

Never a great trip for Odonates but we scored a few mostly widespread species including this Crocothemis erythraea.

Pyrenean brook newt (Euproctes asper) is a firm favourite on this tour and usually not too difficult to locate.

Western green lizard (Lacerta bilineata) was added to the list on the penultimate day in the field whilst walking the fantastic Ossoue valley near Gavarnie.

The tour ended with a chance to walk the busy trail up to the famous Cirque de Gavarnie. Superb.

La glorieuse Loire

On our recent trip to France, we were allowed just half a day on the Loire on 28/7, instead of our planned 2-3 days. We had a great afternoon though and are keen to go back. Our first look at a river was a lunch stop on the Vienne at L’Île Bouchard which produced some interesting Odo’s, with Erythromma lindeni taking pride of place, alongside Calopteryx splendens, Platycnemis pennipes and Onychogomphus forcipatus. Later the kids swam at the confluence of the Loire and Vienne whilst I poked about along the bank. Amongst the numerous Onychogomphus forcipatus we did see one (probably female) Ophiogomphus cecilia. But the view was brief and no photos… Also here a single Lestes viridis and yet more Erythromma lindeni. A great insight into the joys of dragging on the Loire, I hope we return.

My first European Erythromma lindeni turned up on the Vienne and the Loire.

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Platycnemis were common along the Vienne.

Lestes viridis were on the wing along the Loire.

Onychogomphus forcipatus were very common along the Loire and Vienne, diligent searching produced a frustrating fleeting view of my first Ophiogomphus.

Number 2 found this big European mantis (Mantis religiosa) along the riverbank.

the last Lestes

The first week of our holiday was a wash-out, poor weather and a car crash put paid to that. Once we were mobile again we finally got down to Île de Ré for our 'week on the beach' with friends. This worked well and had the added wildlife bonus of a crack at the small Atlantic population of Lestes macrostigma. These enigmatic brackish-tolerant damselflies are found here in dense stands of sedges in old salt pans and were only recently discovered on the Atlantic coast of France. With such narrow habitat preferences and a naturally low density I was not exactly filled with confidence.

I need not have worried though because on our first bike ride, I stopped at the first suitable looking 'pool' and waded in to the vegetation, quickly finding that Lestes barbarus were abundant and turning up a fine male Lestes macrostigma. The 'pool' was as dry as a bone but the barbarus were busy ovipositing all the same. Nothing like optimism. This patch of habitat was in fact unusual and we only found one other like it during the week and this did not produce macrostigma despite extensive searching. A return to the original site produced a pair of macrostigma the next day and I left the island feeling rather pleased with myself.

My last European Lestes species - a female Lestes macrostigma - a splendid animal and hard to find on the Île de Ré.

and the male.

Huge numbers of Lestes barbarus were present in the ephemeral wetlands of Île de Ré.

Odd to see Aeshna affinis, another ephemeral wetland specialist, holding territory over dry ponds on the landward edge of the saltmarsh.

Le fin?

Team Benstead's Tour de France came to an abrupt halt yesterday, when a white van man (L'homme de van blanc) jumped a light in the rain and we skidded inexorably into a T-bone that left Bobby (our faithful Ford Focus estate) a write-off in Orleans. No-one hurt though luckily. The next 8 hours reflected rather badly on our Swedish insurers and we still await new transportation along with our huge pile of camping gear...

Postcard from the Île de Ré

Spent an enjoyable five days on the Île de Ré, near La Rochelle recently. Great to have big tides and a big sea for a change. The island offers good birding. I enjoyed the Category C sacred ibises (!), Mediterranean gulls, Scops owls, bluethroats and fan-tailed warblers.

More Île de Ré birding info at Nick Ransdale's website.

Black-winged stilts, it was great to be out in tidal saltmarsh habitat again. The absence of any meaningful tides in our part of Sweden meant the kids got to go rock-pooling for the first time ever too!

White-spotted bluethroat (1K male) - I have not seen enough white-spots in my life. The marshes of the Île de Ré support a healthy population of these birds.

Lappet moth

Lappet Gastropacha quercifolia - the best moth from our recent French trip. Will Woodrow took this shot and we both regretted his decision to leave his moth trap at home!

Dragging - 01/08/09

To cool down the kids whilst the villa was given the once over to make it acceptable again after our week of occupation we were shown a great little stretch of river by Simon Uren (Le Moulin de Muralle). Here we waded about and watched Onychogomphus forcipatus, Calopteryx virgo and best-of-all a single patrolling male Boyeria irene - another, very charismatic species that I have not seen for a long time.

Dragging - 28/7/09

It has been a while since I last saw Calopteryx xanthostoma too, this one (a close relative of splendens) is restricted to south-west Europe

A widespread species (Platycnemis pennipes) but my first of the year

Had an afternoon around a few streams and along the Dordogne with the kids this afternoon to try and get some exercise and a breath of fresh air. The small stream near Les Quartre Routes de Lot was OK with plenty of Calopteryx virgo, a few xanthostoma, Platycnemis pennipes and a single territorial Onychogomphus uncatus. A backwater of the Dordogne near Vayrac produced both Onychogomphus species and Anax imperator, as well as xanthostoma and pennipes. Number 1 found an entertaining pair of water voles here too.

Long time, no see - 26/7/09

Argiope bruennichi - a common four-legs in our villa garden in the Dordogne region

Aeshna affinis - another dragonfly that is was good to get re-acquainted with. These fed at dusk around the garden

Cool

Spent most of the holiday relaxing and catching up with family, but could not resist netting a rather Anax-like aeshnid that buzzed us at dusk this evening in the garden. Aeshna affinis is a splendid little beast. Other garden invertebrates included plenty of hornets (often munching on wasps) and the splendid wasp spider pictured above.

Dragging - 25/7/09

Onychogomphus uncatus - a new dragonfly for me

Onychogomphus forcipatus - one of two species of gomphid flying together at Chateauponsac during the afternoon

Late July found Team Benstead driving south from Scandinavia to the decidely warmer climes of central France for a big family shindig. Meeting up with my sister and her family we combined forces on the last day of travel and stopped at the La Gartempe River (just below the picturesque town of Chateauponsac). Here we dunked the kids into the cool waters and I had time to grab a new dragonfly (Onychogomphus uncatus), as well as renewing my acquaintance with Onychogomphus forcipatus.