This is the time of the year when, traditionally, one looks back at the year to highlight what has happened to wildlife in the Highlands. But that can wait until next week, as for now I want to write on an optimistic note and look forward to 2012.
When I was at the recent AGM of the Highland Biological Recording Group there were various groups of wildlife mentioned. These included butterflies, moths, wildflowers, mammals and sea shells but, as usual, there was one group of insects that was not mentioned, namely dragonflies. My idea is that if anyone wants to get interested or renew their interest in a group of wildlife this coming year, then why not choose dragonflies? They are after all one of the most dramatic looking insects, with a fierce reputation, ill deserved, and an abundance of folklore.
What brought dragonflies to a head for me was the illustrations of them by Ben Cormack who lives on the Isle of Eigg. Readers may recall I mentioned his artwork last year, particularly those that were used to illustrate a leaflet on The Dragonflies and Damselflies of the Small Isles. This year I ordered a few of the pictures and the photograph is of the four-spotted chaser taken, with Ben's permission, from the drawing.
In the leaflet there are 14 of the drawings including the common hawker dragonfly that occurs on Rum, Canna and Eigg and the damselfly, the beautiful demoiselle. This latter is only rumoured to be on the Isle of Rum and I have certainly never seen it there.
So why take an interest in dragonflies of all the diverse range of wildlife to be found in the Highlands? To start with, they are one of the most fascinating groups of insects. With so few people interested in them in the Highlands, there is plenty of scope for recording even for the beginner.
As for identification, they are to my mind easier than butterflies and certainly moths. There are also excellent books on them such as Watching British Dragonflies by Steve Dudley et al, published In 2007 at £27.50 which will tell you all you want to know about them.
Apart from the leaflet on the Small Isles there are also leaflets on "Damselflies and Dragonflies of the Highlands - an identification guide", published by the Highland Council and "Damselflies and Dragonflies of the Cairngorms". The British Dragonfly Society is now in the last year of recording before bringing out their distribution atlas and it could do with any records, so go online for details.
Recording dragonflies is not only a summer occupation as they can be sampled by "pond dipping", as during most of the year they are underwater in that "jungle" of their own. Indeed, this is one of the amazing aspects of the lifecycle of dragonflies, in that some of them spend about three or four years in their aquatic form before emerging to fly for a few weeks and then mate, lay eggs and die. Quite remarkable.
So how do you study dragonflies, apart from with an identification book? You can in fact see dragonflies virtually anywhere, as I have seen them going along a road and in woodland well away from water.
However, the best place is a loch or lochan for most species. The type of the water helps as it is best to look for a sheltered area, say in woodland, with varying depths of water that gives a wide variety of plant aquatics. Warm sunny days help and just sit quietly and wait and the dragonflies will eventually come to you. Close focusing binoculars help, as you may not always be able to get close to your quarry. Good hunting!
* THE highlight of the week was publicity from the RSPB about white-tailed eagles, with comments on the good breeding season in 2011 despite the poor weather.
The comments were that these magnificent birds had now reached the same numbers as they were before they became extinct in 1918.
What was not clear from the publicity was the dates for comparison. For example, was it just before the numbers fell or when they were in their heyday in terms of numbers and distribution.
Whatever, it is a measure of the success of the programme and the efforts of all those involved in the current programme that started in 1975. The first birds were brought to the Isle of Rum and between 1975 and 1995 some 82 birds were released on the island.
It is not often realised that rearing the birds to fledging stage is only the beginning, as the monitoring is in some ways more difficult, time consuming and expensive. Many people have been, and are, involved in this complicated programme.
When the birds were on Rum I often used to visit the island and was able to see them being fed under the responsibility of John Love.
He was, and to a certain extent still is, "the sea eagle man" and has written the "bible" on the birds. This is The Return of the Sea Eagle, published in 1983.
