#30DaysWild No. 13. We were going to picture the bedraggled bumblebee we fished out the of the little ponds near Balebarn Eco Lodge, but this male banded demoiselle we spotted nearby is so much smarter!
Despite the date, and a fairly wet morning, the bumblebee got lucky, and is drying out in the Wheatland Farm turbine room – on a large flower.
Meanwhile, it’s lovely to find this damselfly, even though there weren’t that many damsel or dragonflies at the pond overall today (the weather won’t have helped). It’s only the second year we’ve seen these at Wheatland Farm, and we only ever see a few. They need clear-running streams and rivers to breed, and although we have a small stream it doesn’t get very big on our farrm. There are only two species of damselfly in the UK with coloured wings (you can see both in Devon). A few weeks ago, we saw what we think is a female banded demoiselle (pictured below) too, so now we’ve seen both male and female at Wheatland Farm this year.
#30DaysWild Previously
This time last year: Replanting trees to replace ash
This time in 2017: The annual exodus from the Wheatland Farm Wildlife Pond. Today we saw one frog/toadlet – so we’re behind last year’s schedule.