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From diggings to diversity

  • Writer: Kate
    Kate
  • Jul 29
  • 1 min read

Our newly created scrapes at the far end of the Great Broad may still look fairly bare, but signs are already strong that this place is being colonised by wildlife.


Our team have seen broad-bodied chasers at the site, which are often the first dragonflies to colonise a newly created water space. This is a great indication that the scrapes will soon be populated by many other species.


Their name is descriptive, they certainly do have a broader body than many dragonfly species. The female has a yellow abdomen with paler spots at the edges:


Female broad-bodied chaser dragonfly with a wide abdomen which is yellow with lighter yellow spots at either side.

The male has a blue abdomen with yellow spots on the edges:


Male broad-bodied chaser dragonfly with a wide abdomen which is blue with yellow spots at either side.

What else has been spotted at the new scrapes?

As well as insect life, we've also spotted schools of small fry (fish), sensibly trying to avoid the pike in the main water space. These juvenile fish stay together in a large group for safety and can also often be seen in the dykes by our two wooden footbridges on the south side of the Great Broad.


We have seen mallard mothers with their fluffy ducklings, swimming around and enjoying the space too.


A female mallard with light and dark brown feathers and a dark orange-brown bill. She has four fluffy young ducklings to her left side and one to her right. They are swimming to the left of the shot. The ducklings have pale yellow feathers on the sides of their face and neck, but are largely brown.

Let us know what you spot as nature takes over this new space! We'd love to see your photos 😎 Contact us and we'll let you know how you can get them to us. You might even want to enter our photography competition which continues until the end of September. Full details here.

 
 
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