Is Bill Oddie right, do Banded Demos remind you of fairies?
Brockadale near Pontefract is a little tricky to find, but well worth it when you do. The main part of the reserve is hillside and meadow carpeted with wild flowers and orchids. Standing in the middle of the wild flower meadowland, you could almost have stepped back in time to a greener and wilder England. We need more of this good stuff! These flowery slopes have never been ploughed though. This is my favourite kind of reserve and it reminds me of some of the hidden away chalk and wild flower reserves I have visited down in Hampshire and Wiltshire - last vestiges of some of our rarest butterflies. There are no hides here just paths winding through steep-sided meadow and woodland down to the River Went which bisects the reserve at the bottom of the magnesian limestone rock valley. I spent quite a lot of time by the slow flowing river "going to town" photographically on the Banded Demoiselle population. I have never seen so many males in one place before, though females seemed to be outnumbered by around fifteen to one making the males' display flights even more competitive. Males were constantly involved in aerial dogfights and should a bronze green female appear she was pursued by, well everyone! There were good numbers of Marbled White and Dark Green Fritillary butterflies, plus Common Blues, Brimstone, Brown Argus, day flying Burnet and Chimney Sweeper moths. Orange Tips were still flying too, but then it has been a funny year. Bird wise the usual warblers were present plus I had good views and hearings of Jay, a rarity here in East Yorkshire. Yellowhammers were calling for a little bit of bread and no cheese all around the reserve too. I saw stoats along the stream and heard various plops into the water, Water Vole? There was also one very loud splash so unless they have crocodiles I can't explain it! Dog walking is permitted (on leads during the breeding season) so the occasional dog poop left by "responsible" owners is the only slight negative. Ask any dog owner and they will all tell you how "responsible" they are! I only found one abandoned bagged up poop - a type of madness I will never understand - so, all in all, not a major problem at Brockadale.
To sum up, Brockadale is the perfect reserve for a complete immersion in natural nature as natural as you are going to get it and just off junction 33 of the M62. If you need to recharge your green batteries, this is the place. There is currently a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust appeal to purchase a piece of land to join up and further improve Brockadale, details can be found on the website here.
Tricky to show what it is like, best have a visit for yourself
male large red damselfly
male banded demoiselle
male banded demoiselle
Roger, Roger.....Bogey at 12 o'clock
more male banded demoiselles
a horse
five spot burnet moth
male banded demoiselles
male banded demoiselle
is it art, is it out of focus? :)
you guessed it!
brown argus
and finally a bumble bee
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