Field Notes: Rare 'jewel' found at Nevis

Nevis Conservation Officer Rob Collister reports on a gem of a find - a northern emerald dragonfly - at our peatland restoration site by the Ben.

Cracking day on the hill yesterday for Team Nevis. Ali, Jen, and I (along with Ellie and Robbie from the Nevis Landscape Partnership) took a wander out to our peatland restoration site for a bit of property familiarisation. Really impressive to see the difference the leaky dams have made even through this dry spell. Some areas that would previously have dried out were holding water well, and other areas of bare peat are starting to show signs of plant re-colonization. 

^ Ali found an ancient pinecone among the bog wood which must be at least hundreds of years old.

^ We were also very impressed by the sundews coming into flower. What amazing shapes they form.

^ We spent a good bit of time looking for dragonfly larvae and exuvia in anticipation of establishing a monitoring program here in the future. Along with a healthy number of common species (four spotted chaser and common darters), we were absolutely delighted to find what we believe was a recently emerged northern emerald dragonfly! I was so excited by this that I had to lie down in the bog to get a closer look.

Northern emerald is on the red data list and hasn't been recorded in that area before. If confirmed*, this would indicate that northern emeralds are breeding in this area, which would be amazing news. The long-term recovery of this site will only help the population going forwards.

Watch this space!

*UPDATE: We have since had it confirmed that it was a northern emerald dragonfly.

• Find out more about our peatland restoration work at Nevis.