Still time for autumn dragonflies says Sheffield wildlife expert

Even as larvae in pond-water they are amazing creatures with jaws rather like miniature versions of ‘Alien’ the film.

I suspect they were the inspiration for the creature in the film.

Late summer is a good time for larger dragonflies to be out and about and getting eyeball to eyeball with them.

I photographed this particularly approachable common darter, right, around a garden pond.

I could see it turning its head to watch me getting close; too near and it moved away.

However, like many of the bigger dragons, it returned time and again to its favoured territorial spot.

In recent weeks I have seen southern hawker, northern hawker, migrant hawker, emperor, and common hawker and these are all big ‘brutes’.

The best places to view them are sites with medium-sized ponds and/or slow-flowing water like canals.

Park ponds are good if not too sheltered by trees, so try the Porter Valley ponds such as Forge

Dam for instance, Graves Park ponds, especially the old boating lake, the ponds around Beauchief Abbey, and, of course, Woodhouse Washlands Nature Reserve where Christine Handley and myself designed a landscape of small ponds especially for the newts and the dragonflies.

Shire Brook Valley Nature Reserve is another local site worth checking out at this time of year.

Better still though is to get the dragons and damsel to come to you.

Indeed, now as summer begins to gently fade away, it is a good time to be planning your wildlife garden for next year – and that should include water if possible.

You can design ponds and water-features to be child friendly and safe too.

You may have heard of the idea of ‘rewilding’ and your garden is a great place to start.

Just imagine what a difference it would make to wildlife and biodiversity if every garden owner did their bit to help – saving nature one small step at a time. Now is the time to plan ahead.

Prof Ian D Rotherham, of Sheffield Hallam University, is a researcher, writer and

broadcaster on wildlife and environmental issues.