Country diary: catching flies with the shimmering fireflirt

Pulborough Brooks, West Sussex: It hovers and snatches at a fly, its tail fanning out in flickering bright flashes of orange-red Common blue butterflies float over the brown, dried grass. Large southern hawker dragonflies - patterned green, blue and black, with bulbous heads and thoraxes and long abdomens - whirr along the edges of the paths at waist height, steadily patrolling their territories, back and forth, for mates and prey. Occasionally, two of the big dragonflies meet and their wings clash, briefly making loud buzzing sounds, before the insects part and go their separate ways.I enter a hide. Wasps wander in and out of the open windows. In front, the pools are still dry, with cracked mud where there is usually water. To the left of the hide, a bird is flying to and from a hawthorn tree, its branches heavy with red berries. It flies up, hovers, and returns to its perch, hidden from view. I watch and wait patiently. Finally, the bird flies up again, repeating its fly-catching sortie over the grass. Continue reading...