Dragonfly habitat area launched at WWT Welney
Staff at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, Welney Centre invited donators and supporters to the opening of the new dragonfly pond area on the reserve this week. It is hoped that visitors will now be able to enjoy close encounters with the 20 species of dragonfly and damselfly that the wetlands at Welney support.
These species include the rare and aptly named scarce chaser which is only found in a handful of sites within East Anglia and Southern England. This beautiful dragonfly has a stronghold on the Ouse washes and in early summer the adults can be seen patrolling the ponds as they guard their territories. The females have this beautiful rusty-orange colouration whilst the males are equally smart with brilliant blue bodies!
It is only through the kind donations left to the Welney centre that projects such as this are able to be developed. The reserve at Welney held a special place in the hearts of John Bush and Pat Newark and it is wonderful that, as a result of this habitat creation, they will be remembered here for years to come. The donations, support of the Friends of Welney group and time given by our volunteers have enabled us to create this area complete with interpretation aiding identification of the different species and an all access picnic bench.
Throughout the history of the Ouse washes herds of cattle have grazed the wet grasslands, separated by a maze of ditches rather than fences. As a result of the management of these ditches the area now supports an abundant 44% of Britain’s aquatic plants, in turn allowing insects to thrive as an important part of the ecosystem.
This newly created habitat has been designed to attract the full range of dragonfly and damselfly species that occur at Welney seasonally. In spring visitors will need to watch out for the hairy dragonfly, whilst throughout summer the chasers and a little later the darters as they all emerge from their underwater world. It will be an area that visitors can come to relax in; surrounded by the activity of the reserve in the summer as the wildflowers bloom, birds sing and the dragons and damsels fly past.
