Dragonfly survey at East Park

There was a window of opportunity with a hazy, sunny morning and I headed to East Park hoping for dragonflies.

I was amazed to see a dead eel by the shore.

Lovely to have a recently fledged Grey Wagtail on the central island.

A parent Great Crested Grebe feeding its demanding grown chick.

The Canada Geese have done well this year, with several families about.

This is a (blurry) Anthophora furcata male, just leaving the yellow flag flower where he was feeding. A site tick for me.

Several Painted Ladies about, this one feeding on bramble.

A single Southern Marsh orchid just by the westernmost shore of the main lake.

Hull Dragons
The sun was strongest between 11 and 12, where I managed to find 4 species of odonates in two complete circuits of the lake. Nothing on the boating lake though. Two quick sightings of four-spotted chasers, one at each end of the lake, but unfortunately, they didn't settle.
 On the eastern part of the lake there were plenty of Blue-tailed, at least 3 mating pairs, a few Common Blue and two Red-eyed Damselflies, another site tick for me.

There were two beautiful flowering patches of Amphibious bistort, favoured by the Red-eyed damselflies.

After an encounter with a blue-tailed male, this red-eyed jumped on a leaf and floated away.

Resting Red-eyed, quickly disturbed by...

...a blue-tailed, who took posession of the flower.

The terrapins
I had seen single red-eared terrapins at East Park before, but today I counted 7 of various sizes. Four were together on the western side of the lake, and three sunbathed in the E side of the central island, viewable from the bridge. These are some of them.

The largest of them all.

and the smallest and most colourful.

Terrapins are not thought to breed in the UK, the existing individuals are presumably the result of unwanted pets being dumped in waterways after the 1990s craze of the Ninja. turtles. Individuals survive and have reached adulthood, but they rely on sustained heat for reproduction as eggs need to be warm (22-27oC+) for two to three months to hatch. In the UK, these conditions are not met, and in case they did the cooler incubation temperatures might result in the production of males, as sex is determined by temperature.