Moths, butterflies (Large Skipper, Ringlet & Meadow Brown) Dragonflies, Damselflies, Ducks and Daisies from a walk down by the river Aire, through the Wild Flower Meadow next to Denso Marston Nature Reserve, Baildon, and up to the Leeds Liverpool Canal to see some fish – a slow, steady, local wildlife walk on 20 June 2026.
The header image is of an Emperor Dragonfly that I spent some time watching fly up and down a section of reeds along the canal.
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I now need to get on with a post about a walk in Gallows Hill Nature Reserve, Otley.
Meadow and River
The Wild Flower Meadow between Denso Marston Nature Reserve and Buck Lane is looking good; quite a few Banded Demoiselles, Calopteryx splendens, could be seen flying around as could Ringlets and Meadow Browns. Considering how different their colour is in the photos it is surprisingly difficult for me to say which it is as I see them flitting through the grass.
One of the first interesting things I spotted as I walked along the path through the meadow was a Large Skipper. I expected to see more as I walked through but I had walked back and forth several times before I spotted one again. I will be visiting the area a few more times this year hoping to see Small Coppers and Common Blues.
It is nice to see the expanse of Oxeye Daisies and even nice to see the different kinds of grasses growing in the meadow. An area near the middle is all flattened where I have seen people throwing balls for their dogs or spreading blankets for a picnic. One thing this will do is compress the soil a bit that hopefully makes it suitable for mining bees.
The smart appearance of the male Mandarin Duck during the breeding season is quite a sight but equally impressive is that a month or so later they can look like the one I saw near the entrance to Denso Marston Nature Reserve. You can tell it is the male from its red cheek and beak but it looks nothing like the ones seen earlier in the year. The ones from this post in 2025 – Rounding off February 2025. 1 of 4. – were impressive.
The Small Magpie Moth drifted down in front of me on the path to the reserve. It didn’t look as though it could keep itself up on its legs but it did manage to shuffle off into the undergrowth.
Canal
Along the Leeds Liverpool Canal the star of the show was an Emperor dragonfly, Anax imperator, that was flying backwards and forwards over a section of the canal that had Reeds and Water Lily pads. It was fast and erratic in its flight but there were a couple of areas that it would fly past repeatedly so I concentrated on those with my camera and I think I was reasonably successful.
On that particular stretch of the canal the most common Damselfly seemed to be the Red-Eyed Damselfly, Erythromma najas, with a few of them seen mating. The next most common was the Blue-tailed Damselfly, Ischnura elegans. This is markedly different to Denso Marston Nature Reserve where I would say the most common are the Azure Damselfly, Coenagrion puella, and Banded Demoiselles, Calopteryx splendens, by a long way.
A few times I cast my eyes over the reeds growing out of the canal looking for exuvia and I thought I had spotted some but on a closer look it turned out to be woven nests for eggs or spiderlings with a Long Jawed Orb Weaver Spider, family Tetragnathidae, in attendance.
The heat seemed to be bringing several shoals of fish closer to the surface with fair numbers of Roach and Perch swimming together.
Track
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