Fully laden with a bright pink pollen load and sat atop a scabious flower, the females of this scarce mining bee shouldn’t be hard to miss - the combination of a pale blue flower and a large bee with pink pollen sitting on top is pretty striking!
Welcome to the website of the Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre, one of the many local environmental record centres situated around the UK. We provide environmental information services encompassing biodiversity, geodiversity and other aspects of Sussex’s natural capital. We cover the two counties of East and West Sussex, including Brighton & Hove, in South East England. We are a small but dedicated team of environmental data managers, naturalists and IT specialists.
The Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre is managed as a partnership project, hosted by the Sussex Wildlife Trust. Our partners include local planning authorities, government agencies, conservation bodies and other organisations which need access to up-to-date biodiversity information, such as water companies.
Sussex has a vibrant and energetic biological recording community with many independent recording groups and societies. By strengthening relationships with these groups, and the wider network of naturalists, ecologists and recording schemes active in Sussex, the Record Centre facilitates sharing of ever-greater amounts of biodiversity data.
Fully laden with a bright pink pollen load and sat atop a scabious flower, the females of this scarce mining bee shouldn’t be hard to miss - the combination of a pale blue flower and a large bee with pink pollen sitting on top is pretty striking!
11 July 2019
Norfolk Hawker showing distinctive green eyes and small yellow triangle on 2nd segment of abdomen
Photo: Christian Hance
Red-veined Darter, an uncommon migrant species in Sussex
Photo: John Arnott
Norfolk Hawker showing distinctive green eyes and small yellow triangle on 2nd segment of abdomen
Photo: Christian Hance
Red-veined Darter, an uncommon migrant species in Sussex
Photo: John Arnott
John Arnott from Chichester Natural History Society contacted us on Monday to let us know that on 5 July he had recorded a Norfolk Hawker, Anaciaeschna isoceles at Medmerry. He wrote the following:
“Norfolk Hawker at RSPB Medmerry this afternoon 05.07.19 at c. 13:35h at SZ8262896168. Bullying several Four-spotted Chasers. Took me a while to ID as it never stopped patrolling at warp speed. Process of elimination led to that ID and then it landed for 10 seconds, which nailed it. I was with Chichester Natural History Soc. conducting the annual dragonfly survey and Christian Hance (chair of the Society) got a good image of it landed. I went back at 14:00h having retrieved my camera from my wife and managed to get five photos of it in flight - blurred but good enough for validation. By then an Emperor had arrived so the Norfolk Hawker wasn’t king of the castle anymore as they both engaged in tail-chases, mostly the Emperor being dominant. Also a nice Red-veined Darter on the track at SZ8235995842.”
The record of the Red-veined Darter, Sympetrum fonscolombii would be a good one in its own right - we have had fewer than 50 Sussex records of this migrant species since 2000 (see our species of the month report on the darters) but this is the first time Norfolk Hawker, a red data book species and protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, has ever been recorded in Sussex. To add to the excitement, John contacted us a couple of days later to let us know that had received a report from Steve Webster, Site Manager at RSPB Pagham and Medmerry, of a mating pair of Norfolk Hawker having been been sighted at the same location.
We have had plenty of evidence of migrating insects recently so it’s well worth keeping a watch for these rare dragonflies at all wetland locations, especially the more coastal ones. Please report all your dragonfly sightings on iRecord, ideally with photographs of sufficient quality to show the identifying features in order to allow verification.
