Seeing dragonflies on Wicken Fen
- Published:
- 30 June 2024
Wicken Fen is one of the British Dragonfly Society's recognised Dragonfly Hotspots, designated in June 2024. These are special places, carefully chosen because they support a good variety of dragonfly and damselfly species, are easy to access, and can provide opportunities for local communities to learn about dragonflies and get involved with conservation and events.
Tim Coleshaw, Chair of Trustees for the British Dragonfly Society Chair of Trustees, said: “We are thrilled to be officially designating Wicken Fen as a dragonfly hotspot and continuing our partnership. We hope this new hotspot and their passionate staff and volunteer team will help inspire even more people to love these fantastic insects and to get involved in monitoring and conserving them.”
Dragonflies and damselflies depend on water in all stages of their lifecycle and all need water bodies to breed. Eggs are laid by adults either directly into water or onto plant material on or at the water’s edge. At the larval stage most species spend between one to two years underwater before developed final-stage larvae climb out of the water onto vegetation for a final moult when the adult dragonfly or damselfly emerges. Adults will then rely on a watery habitat to provide food - hunting over or near water to feed on other small insects during their very short life-span which is typically one or two weeks, exceptionally six to eight weeks. With its plethora of ponds and watercourses, this means that Wicken Fen is an ideal place for them.
The work undertaken by the team with careful rotation cutting on the Sedge Fen and ditch management to create successional stages for the dragonflies and damselflies - ie a mix of open water and young through to mature vegetation, has created the optimal habitat for these fascinating insects. In particular it is the ‘dragonfly bay’ areas of open grass alongside the water which have provided these insects – which are nature’s most successful stalkers – to have great places to perch, but they also allow visitors to get fantastic up-close experiences of these beautiful creatures.
Places like Wicken Fen are becoming ever more important for the survival of dragonflies and damselflies, who are being increasingly displaced from their usual habitats further south and on the continent due to climate change.
For species like the striking emperor dragonfly with its incredibly vibrant sky-blue body, which is found here after starting to spread northward about twenty years ago, as well as the southern migrant hawker and willow emerald damselfly, Wicken Fen has become an invaluable refuge.
In total, 22 of the UK’s 57 species have been recorded on the Fen, including the rare Norfolk Hawker, which has been classed as Endangered in the British Odonata Red List 2008.