David

Along with the several damselflies by the river at Stratford, there were two dragonflies, of different species. One was large, brown, and constantly on the move. It stayed too far out over the water to get a clear view, or any sort of picture. The other was more cooperative, spending time resting on a leaf. It was a broad bodied chaser, which is indeed one of the commoner dragonflies.

It was a mature male. Immature males and all females are yellow-brown.

Ripe plums fallen from a tree, their skins in various stages of decoration from the fungi which are rotting them.

Where vegetation grows wild on the banks of the Avon it’s normally good for lots of different insect types in summer, including butterflies. On one occasion, we even saw an exotic tropical butterfly there. Sadly, that will have been an escapee from the nearby butterfly farm. This year, in the summer without butterflies, all we could spot was this single comma, feeding on the waterside meadowsweet flowers.

Bancroft Gardens, by the canal basin and the river in Stratford on Avon, is a municipal showcase. Cardoons are quite a feature, including these which were coming to the end of their flowering season by the path to the Tramway Bridge.

Male demoiselles, brightly coloured damselflies, spend much of their time on sunny days resting on waterside leaves, displaying themselves. Should a second male come in to land close to where one is already resting, they both take to the air. There’s a brief skirmish, ending with the intruder finding its landing place a little distance away and the other settling back into its old position.

I don’t remember ever seeing two males settled so close as these before, both on the same leaf. Occasionally, one or other of them would take off, fly around for a brief time, then land again where it had previously been.

Riverbank vegetation along the Avon once the most tightly regimented section through Stratford is left behind. Lots of burdocks. By August, the flowers have been fertilised, the seeds are beginning to ripen within their multi-hooked seed cases.

Female banded demoiselles are as striking in appearance as the males. They, too, have bodies which are vivid and shiny. They, too, rest sunning themselves on waterside leaves. But they don’t do so as often. Even when they do, they are harder to spot, being green against the green of the leaves.

All the pictures in this set are of the same individual, the only one I could see in contrast to the several males which featured in yesterday’s post.

Mill Lane, Stratford on Avon, a quiet, dead end lane which forms part of the most popular circular walk along the river. Along the lane, big houses, some of them with flower-heavy front gardens. These caught my eye.

The most popular riverside walk in Stratford on Avon heads upstream from the Tramway Bridge to cross the river on another footbridge next to the town’s ring road. Apart from a short stretch along a quiet land and a churchyard, the walk is through a landscape of urban parks, called gardens on the right bank.

Footpaths continue upstream on both sides of the river. The few people who venture this way step, within a few yards, into what ranks as countryside in the English midlands. The river banks are a mass of vegetation, proving in turn a home for wildlife.

At this time of year, what is most noticeable is the insects. Damselflies and dragonflies rest on the riverside plants, or ceaselessly patrol a territory over the edge of the water.

Banded demoiselles are one of the most striking of damselfly species, The males have vivid electric blue bodies, sometimes with areas of bronze. They spend a lot of time lying in the sun, hoping to attract the attention of females.

All Saints Church, Stratford on Avon, promoted for tourism as “Shakespeare’s church” (he was both christened and buried here) has a churchyard with a frontage on the river bank and lots of mature trees. This hollyhock had flowers which harmonised with the colours of the stone in the church itself.