Lamsdell Bird Ringing and Wildlife Blog: Hilfield Park Reservoir

Wednesday 21 July 2021

Hilfield Park Reservoir - 19th July 2021

A visit to check the site for Lesser Emperor and Red-veined Darters, with only the former seen, with at least two, one of which was oviposting, but sadly further out than wished for, so no photo! The site was literally full of Black-tailed Skimmers with an excess of 45 present. A number of Common and Ruddy Darters were present, with some fairly freshly emerged, as were the two Willow Emeralds seen. Five Brown Hawkers were present with the same number of Four-spotted Chasers remaining.

Black-tailed Skimmer

Broad-bodied Chaser

Common Darter

Ruddy Darter

Willow Emerald

Four-spotted Chaser

Emperor Dragonfly

About us

Chris and Denise Lamsdell

We have both been birders for about 40 years based in South Bucks near the West London reservoir complexes.

Since September 2021 we have been based in North Norfolk. We have done our bit of twitching in the past, but with other priorities this has become a much reduced activity with a preference for seeing new birds where ever our travels take us.

We both have been ringing since 2005. Our local group was the Runnymede RG while based in Buckinghamshire. Since moving to Norfolk we have started a new group called The Iceni Bird Monitoring Group, aimed at increasing public engagement through colour ringing projects on Black-headed Gull, Turnstone and Lapwing. We ring at several sites including Sculthorpe Moor, Sandringham Estate, Deepdale Farm and also monitor bird populations for the Norfolk Rivers Trust. We do ringing at home and support with foreign projects when opportunities allow. Chris also has an interest in Butterflies and Dragonflies and contains his limited photographic skill to them.