"Hello my name is Iain Stafford. I am a Bolsover Countryside Partnership Ranger working for Derbyshire County Council. We are now stood in an area called the Dragonfly Ponds, this area is a mixture of 3 ponds quite a nice grassland and the reed beds that just in front of you. The reed bed is a good habitat for reed and sedge warbler, reed warbler nest in all these reeds. The pond itself just in front of you has a pond dipping platform and this particular pond is one of the highest pond life diversity that has been recorded in Derbyshire by the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. Up to present on this particular site I think there has been 18 species of dragonfly that have been recorded using this particular area.
"You may see several small blue damselflies, very weak fliers, at around your feet and also on the pond side vegetation. Other species you find here are the common darter dragonfly, a medium size species of dragonfly takes after its name of darting. It will sit on the bank vegetation or on the pond dipping platform in front of you and when it sees something entering its territory or some food it will dart out to that point investigate what is there and then come back to the same point and settle more or less in the same place.
"Patrolling over the water you will often see emperor dragonflies, now they are our largest species of dragonfly, they are green and blue and usually about 10cm in length. They patrol up and down the pond investigating anything that comes into their territory and any food sources that they will catch on the wing, and they use their legs like a basket to catch their prey as they approach it and then they will tear the wings off a flying insect and take that to a point where they will settle down and eat that. It’s all fair game when it comes to food with those!"