A View from the Bridge

Just days after I posted last about the wonders of Odonata, we were given another glimpse into their incredible lives.

After a week of inclement weather which probably made the local wildlife wonder whether it really was summer after all, we set out for a stroll at Milton Country Park on a seasonably warm afternoon under a sky which was draped with only a few benign wisps of cloud. We hoped that this sudden change in weather would encourage the park’s animals out of their hiding places.

Thousands of people drive past Milton Country Park every day while commuting on the infamous A14, but many don’t know it is there. Set back from the road and hidden by thick rows of trees, the park is a verdant oasis amidst some of the busiest roads and one of the most bustling industrial areas of Cambridge. The area was formerly filled with gravel pits but has been transformed into an expanse of wetland in which a multitude of wildlife thrives.

As always, we were treated to a myriad of sightings of water birds such as moorhens, swans and great-crested grebes, all of which were with young – somewhat older and less awkward than a couple of months ago but no less adorable. But as we passed over one of the park’s many quaint bridges overlooking the edge of a lake we saw something different, something we hadn’t seen there before.

A female Brown Hawker dragonfly was hovering close to the water, carefully surveying the area. At first it appeared that maybe she was hunting, but what happened next felt really special. She wavered nearer to the water, until she was just a couple of centimetres above it, and then gently dipped her tail under the surface. It was then that we realised that she was ovipositing!

She stayed in the same spot for a few minutes, laying her eggs in the water, before moving slightly to a position just above the water’s edge. Here she deposited more eggs, but this time into the mud on the bank, rather than directly into the water itself.

This is just the start of a fascinating process. Once her eggs hatch, they will remain underwater in their larval stage for a number of years before emerging from their aquatic world and undergoing a final moult to become adult dragonflies. Their adult stage in comparison is only a brief chapter in their lives, lasting just a few weeks.

So next time you’re near a calm body of freshwater, just stop for a moment and take a closer look, and you too may catch sight of a female dragonfly laying her precious eggs. It really is a sight to behold.