Keeping watch for the brown hawker

I had a beautiful southern hawker, all greens and blues, swooping through my wildlife garden this week.

However, there is one species to look for and easy to identify, the brown hawker. It is big and will be coming to a garden near you. This will turn up almost anywhere. I recall a particularly quiet moment at Bramall Lane a few years ago, when one was hawking over the kop.

It caused quite a stir. In fact, I seem to remember it was the most excitement we had all afternoon! It has a long brown body and the shimmering wings have a distinctive golden yellow sheen.

Another interesting thing with big dragonflies in particular is their territorial behaviour and their way of hunting. They are really active predators and stalk their patch in search of prey.

I watched a southern hawker in Graves Park the other day, patrolling up and down a line of trees just by Norton Woodseats Cricket Club.

They spend a lot of time on the wing (which uses a lot of energy), and so they also find a suitable perch on which to land and survey the landscape, possible rivals, mates – and food, of course. They move between good hunting areas and breeding sites, usually rivers or ponds, depending on the species.

Here again they are both territorial and aggressive. Males chase off rivals and await females with whom to mate. The females will return later to lay their eggs, and so the whole cycle begins again. Just imagine what the prehistoric dragonflies were like with a wingspan of about 18 inches – a serious dragonfly!

Now the really spectacular dragon for us, and we are really very lucky to have them close by, is the golden ringed dragonfly. This is an insect of the upland, the moors and bogs. It breeds in and around upland streams, and frequents the surrounding moorland and bog habitat.

It is a good two to three inches long (6-7cms) and has a rich, jet-black body with yellow-golden rings around its abdomen (the long part of the body). They are quite rare nationally but we have a good population in the Peak District. If you want to see one, then generally you will need to go up into the hills to find them.

This isn’t a dragonfly that moves away from its favoured habitat. So you want a warm, still day, then head up to Stanage Edge and Ringinglow Bog near Redmires, or up on to White Edge near Froggatt.

You should then find a quiet spot near a bit of bog or perhaps a stream, and sit and wait. The other strategy is to roam around suitable areas and just keep a look-out. If they are about you will see them and they are pretty obvious!

I had a message from local naturalist Austin Brackenbury about bees. He pointed out that the reappearance of my honey bees could well be due to a local beekeeper maintaining their hives nearby. I agree and think that is likely.

The bees themselves look like domesticated hive bees rather than wild bees, although it is difficult to be sure. Interestingly, as I said and Austin agrees, the wild honey bee is now very rare.

He saw his last ones in a hollow tree in Oakes Park, close to where I live. This was in the mid-1990s and around that time our department at Hallam University was moving from the campus at Totley Hall. I remember that a south-facing wall in one of the 1950s brick buildings had a massive swarm of honey bees.

They really were everywhere.

That was before the diseases kicked in and the populations were decimated. Unfortunately the problems affect both wild bees and those with beekeepers.

Perhaps it helps if we all do our bit to provide lots of nectar-rich and pollen-rich flowers in our gardens; maybe.

If any beekeepers are out there and read this, then do let me know.