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East Lancashire

MOORLAND HAWKER

September 1, 2025

COMMON HAWKER | Aeshna juncea is a dragonfly of acid bogs in forest and moorland in East Lancashire. It occurs in the Ribble Valley on Longridge and Grindleton Fells and widely in the Forest of Bowland to the north, however, I usually only see male Common Hawkers, endlessly patrolling forest rides or moorland pools looking for females. At the weekend I took another break from searching for Willow Emerald Damselfly Chalcolestes viridis down in the valley and headed to Gisburn Forest in the hope of finding a perched Common Hawker. This is something of a rare event, as they hardly ever seem to land. I managed a few flight shots low over shallow breeding pools on a large bog in the forest, and sat down to watch the abundant Black Darters Sympetrum danae egg-laying in tandem, when a large brown and yellow hawker with gilt-edged golden wings flew in and landed right in front of me. WOW! Female Common Hawker! It proceeded to lay eggs in the surface vegetation of the pool for around half an hour, when another joined it. Females lay eggs immediately after mating, which lasts for around a hour and usually takes place in trees. What a terrific looking creature it is, my dragonfly highlight of the year so far. I do prefer the alternative name ‘Moorland’ Hawker though, Common doesn’t really do it justice and in most places it is far from common. A perched male photo still eludes me. It’s nice to have a project though.

*Common or Moorland Hawker | Aeshna juncea (male) Gisburn Forest 31 August 2025 (Mike Watson)*

There were several other species flying today. It is getting a little late for some of them but there were still the following on the wing: Common Blue Damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum, Azure Damselfly Coenagrion puella, Emerald Damselfly Lestes sponsa, Common Darter Sympetrum striolatum and Southern Hawker Aeshna cyanea.

*Southern Hawker | Aeshna cyanea (male), Gisburn Forest 31 August 2025 (Mike Watson)*

*Black Darter | Sympetrum danae, Gisburn Forest 31 August 2025 (Mike Watson)*

*Black Darter | Sympetrum danae (male), Gisburn Forest 31 August 2025 (Mike Watson)*

*Common Darter | Sympetrum striolatum, Gisburn Forest 31 August 2025 (Mike Watson)*

*Emerald Damselfly | Lestes sponsa (male), Gisburn Forest 31 August 2025 (Mike Watson)*

*Azure Damselfly | Coenagrion puella (male), Gisburn Forest 31 August 2025 (Mike Watson)*

*Gisburn Forest 31 August 2025 (Mike Watson)*

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WILLOW EMERALD DAMSELFLY

August 26, 2025

THEY’RE HERE! The colonisation of the UK by Willow Emerald Damselfly | Chalcolestes virids has been just as spectacular as that of Small Red-eyed Damselfly | Erythromma viridulum as they race each other towards Scotland. Willow Emerald now has a foothold in East Lancashire. The first were found by Jen Coates at Lower Towneley Pool in Burnley in 2023 but there were no sightings the following year. However, she did see at least six on 24 August this year at the same spot, which suggests they did breed after all. In the meantime, Allen Holmes found it at another site in Burnley, at Heasandford Lodge.

I had become weary of searching for it without success around Clitheroe so I wanted to see what their habitat was like in Burnley, which might provide some clues to where to look in the Ribble Valley. Allen and I had a great day on his local patch, seeing Willow Emeralds at four sites. We had at least three but maybe as many as six at Heasandford Lodge, including 1-2 mating pairs. Then Allen spotted another at Rowley Lake, in an alder a few metres downstream from the weir. We followed this up with a visit to Lower Towneley Pool where we located one of Jen’s damselflies and then we found it at another new site, Towneley School Pond, in the willows by the pond. The following day John Wright spotted one at another site at Oswaldwhistle where evidence of breeding had been discovered. They have already been busy in East Lancs!

*Willow Emerald Damselfly | Chalcolestes viridis, Heasandford Lodge, 24 August 2025 (Mike Watson)*

I learned from our sightings. Apart from at Towneley School Pond, they were all very conspicuous, perching on the outermost dead branches of trees. They only did this in sunshine. They were using these perches to hunt smaller flies, making upward sallies up from them in a Sympetrum style, often returning to the same perch. Those at Heasandford Lodge and Rowley Lake were in Alders not Willows and the one at Lower Towneley Pool was in an Ash (so no need to focus purely on willows!). At Heasandford and Rowley Lake they were over water (this is also important for their breeding cycle so their larvae fall into water not cold ground). When disturbed they seemed to go upwards in the trees not down (I have seen this before), the mating pairs also did this.

*Willow Emerald Damselfly | Chalcolestes viridis, Rowley Lake, 24 August 2025 (Mike Watson)*

*Willow Emerald Damselfly | Chalcolestes viridis, Townley School Pond, 24 August 2025 (Mike Watson)*

*Willow Emerald habitat at Heasandford Lodge, East Lancashire (Mike Watson)*

*Allen Holmes at Heasandford Lodge, 24 August 2025 (Mike Watson)*

*Towneley School Pond is very dry this year! (Mike Watson)*

*Emerald Damselfly | Lestes sponsa, Heasandford Lodge. At one point flying below the Willow Emeralds (Mike Watson)*

*Black Darter | Sympetrum danae, Heasandford Lodge. Rare to see one in the town, far away from moorland bogs! (Mike Watson)*

*Helophilus trivittatus, Towneley School Pond (Mike Watson)*

*Helophilus hybridus, Heasandford Lodge. A rare wetland hoverfly in East Lancs (Mike Watson)*

*Tachina fera, Rowley Lake - a parasitic fly (Mike Watson)*

*The attractive cranefly Tipula lateralis, Heasandford Lodge (Mike Watson)*

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HILLTOPPING!

August 16, 2025

*Clouded Yellow | Colias crocea - Longridge Fell - 16 August 2025 (Mike Watson)*

HILLTOPPING! I knew this was a thing from the continent, associated with mate location and wondered if it might be connected to migration too. Well, I am pretty sure it is. My lunchtime walks up Longridge Fell have regularly included migrant nymphalids like Painted Ladies and whites moving uphill along the forestry tracks but today was something really special. I was hoping to find a Clouded Yellow, with so many reported moving north through the UK at the moment and a late report of one on the fell on 12 August but I wasn’t expecting it to be quite as good as it was on the top of the fell today. The morning started slowly at Salthills Quarry - only two Red Admirals and then at Barrow Lower Lodge - a Small Copper of note, so I wasn’t very hopeful. Walking up the Seven Bends at Longridge Fell was quieter than usual but maybe things had not got going yet as it had been quite cloudy so far. A faded Wall Brown livened things up and then BAM! Clouded Yellow!

I like them because they are very easy to spot! There’s no other butterfly that bright orange-yellow colour in our landscape. It was very mobile flying up and down a very flowery ride between young forestry plantations, the borders of the sandy track rammed with knapweed. After a while following it back and forth it landed a few times, FAB-U-LOUS! The crazy big green eyes, pink legs and the figure of eight on its hindwing! Ooh! There’s another! There were three more and when I retraced my steps back to the spot of the first sighting with Ribchester pal Phil Larkin, we had three together, so that’s six in total at least!

There were so many other butterflies along the quiet forestry tracks today, at one point I counted 50 nymphalids on a 20m stretch of knapweed alone. Lots of Red Admirals and Small Tortoiseshell and smaller numbers of Painted Ladies, Large and Small Whites. There were also residents of the Fell: a single Comma, Green-veined Whites, two Small Coppers, Common Blue, a single Meadow Brown and Speckled Wood and three more lovely Wall Browns! Easily my most exciting day butterflying in East Lancs. 10 species is my benchmark for a good walk and I think 14 must be my highest so far. There were some other good insects today. My first Migrant Hawker of the year was at Barrow Lower Lodge, where there were still at least four Small Red-eyed Damselflies, a late Broad-bodied Chaser, as well as three Brown Hawkers, a couple of Emperors and lots of Common Blue Damselflies. On the fell we saw several Southern Hawkers, including some lovely lime-green females, a Common Darter and a couple of Common Hawkers. However, the best sighting was probably one of the last, Furry Peat Hoverfly | Sericomyia superbiens - an uncommon late-flying carder bee mimic. Thanks to Pete Kinsella for pointing this out to us. What a day today was!

*Wall Brown | Lasiommata megera - Longridge Fell - 16 August 2025 (Mike Watson)*

*Painted Lady | Vanessa cardui - Longridge Fell - 16 August 2025 (Mike Watson)*

*Forest track, Longridge Fell (Mike Watson)*

*Southern Hawker (female) | Aeshna cyanea, Longridge Fell (Mike Watson)*

*Furry Peat Hoverfly | Sericomyia superbiens - a late-flying carder bee mimic (Mike Watson)*

*Migrant Hawker | Aeshna mixta - Barrow Lower Lodge (Mike Watson)*

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HERE STOOD AN ANCIENT HEDGEROW

October 15, 2021

Looking south from Shorton Lane, Ribchester towards Osbaldeston Hall. The remnants of a hedgerow that was shown on the 1888 Ordnance Survey map and was probably hundreds of years old on the left. The fact that it was curved and not straight suggested that it was very old indeed.

WHITETHROATS, FRESH FROM THEIR TRANS-SAHARAN SPRING MIGRATION SANG HERE. Song Thrushes fed on the numerous snails in the shadows below. Blackbirds were joined by winter thrushes from Fennoscandia, Redwings and Fieldfares, to feed on hawthorn berries in the autumn. Hares sought refuge in it before the grass of the meadows grew in spring. Now it lies piled in a heap, the heart being ripped out of the countryside. For what?

*Under the plough less than a week later, all trace of the hedgerow has been erased, gone forever.*

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BLOG

MOORLAND HAWKER

WILLOW EMERALD DAMSELFLY

HILLTOPPING!

HERE STOOD AN ANCIENT HEDGEROW