RSPBPagham&Medmerry

Hunting dragons

By Rob Yarham, RSPB Pagham & Medmerry

As the long summer days stretch into August, all the intense bird activity of the spring and early summer seems to be drawing to a lazy end. Only Credit: David Chandler the colonies of gulls and terns are still busy and noisy, as young birds grow and leave the nest, and it won’t be long before they fly away for the winter. Elsewhere, in the trees and bushes, most of the small birds have fallen quiet as their attention moves from advertising themselves and their territories to focusing on bringing up and feeding their young. Parties of adults and young still call tentatively to each other from the dense foliage. So you may be forgiven for thinking that there’s less to see on the reserves right now, but look more closely at the ponds and water courses and you’ll discover plenty of life –in fact, here be dragons! Dragonflies are large insects, often brightly coloured, with a long, slim body and four wings, which they use to hover around and tour the water’s edges, looking for a mate and for prey, especially on warm, sunny days. They seem to be almost constantly hunting, looking for flies and other dragonflies and the smaller damselflies to catch and eat on the wing. But watch them for more than a few minutes and you’ll see them occasionally stop and rest, often returning to a favourite reed or leaf, until they are disturbed by another dragonfly. They are aggressive and territorial, and you may hear the buzzing noise of their vibrating wings as they clash with rivals for prime spots. After mating, the female dragonfly will lay her eggs just under the surface of the water. A dragonfly’s time is short – they typically fly for no more than a week or so after emerging in the summer, but sometimes they can live for up to six or even eight weeks. However, for dragonflies and damselflies, their time in the air is their second incarnation – they have already spent between three months and two years or more living in a larval stage underwater. After emerging from the egg, like their adult form, they ruthlessly hunt and catch insect larvae, crustaceans, worms, snails, leeches, tadpoles and even small fish – using extendable “Alien”like jaws to catch their prey. When they’re ready, they emerge by climbing up vegetation, out of the water. There they bypass a pupal stage and change from a larva to an adult flying insect. They gradually emerge from their outer skin and wait until their until their new legs, abdomen and wings harden enough for them to fly. Look around a pond’s vegetation carefully and you may even find a discarded larval skin, called an exuvia. Although dragonflies and damselflies are voracious and formidable hunters, they face a greater, even more aerobatic hunter – the hobby! This fast, dashing bird of prey can most often be seen flying above water, looking for insects – dragonflies and damselflies are favourites – as well as small birds, including martins and swifts, which it hunts and even eats on the wing. Hobbies are small falcons, similar to kestrels, but with dark grey backs and heads, and white face and streaked underparts and, in adults, with distinctive red feathers over the tops of its legs, which look a little like red trousers! But they are best known for their agility and skill on the wing – soaring high or swooping low in fast dashes over water to chase insects and birds. They can even hover like kestrels. I once watched in amazement as a hobby caught butterflies above my head, stripping their wings before eating them, which then slowly tumbled down through the air in front of me. There is one more, quiz-winning fact about the hobby: their scientific name is Falco subbuteo, meaning “small buzzard” – the second name was adopted by the inventor of the tabletop football game when he wasn’t allowed to trade-mark the name “Hobby”, which was his favourite bird of prey. It’s easy to see why –although it’s not as easily seen as that other small falcon, the kestrel. But if you are lucky enough to find a hobby and watch it race, turn and chase through the air – it may well become your favourite bird of prey, too… To find out more about family events at RSPB Pagham Harbour, including pond dipping and dragon hunting, visit our website or call 01243 641508. www.rspb.org.uk/paghamharbour