With parallel worlds evolving in the park, it’s amazing what can be happening by your elbow, unnoticed.
I’ve seen squirrels hanging upside down on the tree trunks, looking down at oblivious heads only inches away. Or Black rats bursting out of the hedge, flying straight into a litter bin, while people chat or have lunch nearby, none the wiser. And the other day it was the Black-tailed Skimmers.
A pair were trying to mate in the wide expanse of the palace forecourt, getting pestered by a lone marauding male. The couple finally found some peace and quiet on the stone balustrade that runs behind the semi circle of benches.
You could clearly see the way the male folds the darkened tip of his flexible abdomen over the head of the female, to secure her in position. Or the way the female uses four legs to hold onto her partner, while the third pair gets tucked right back, neatly out of the way.
Perhaps I disturbed them, because the Skimmers flew over to a flowering bush, next to a woman absorbed in her newspaper. The dragonflies, their green eyes like aviator goggles, held on tight, as the twig swung in the breeze.
After separating, the female rested on the ground for a while. Female Black-tailed Skimmers emerge into the world bright yellow, but with age can change colour. This one had an indeterminate grey green shimmer.
I saw her zipping over the ornamental fountain, dropping off eggs at a terrific speed. The only pity is it wasn’t the pond, where chances of hatching are significantly higher.
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All round the pond, firmly stuck to the low concrete wall, were quantities of papery husks. I immediately suspected what they might be, remembering the concentration of mating Western Willow Spreadwings (Lestes viridis) in the park last autumn. It must have been a spectacular sight to see the nymphs emerge from the pond in such numbers and burst out of their unravelling skins.
One damselfly was still clinging to an exuvia, much smaller than itself. How could it fit inside? Reading up, I found that once half out, they pause and inflate their wings and abdomen into shape with hemolymph, the insect equivalent of blood.
Looking closely at one of the exuvia, it appears like a Mutoid Waste sculpture. The long “snout” is the labial mask, or lower lip, which the nymph flips open to grab passing prey.
The nymphs do their work well. The two biology students who volunteer to keep algae levels at a level acceptable for park authorities found no mosquito larvae in the pond at all.
After the mass metamorphosis, the damselflies had dispersed, but I did find one pristine young female clinging to a leaf. Her wings had a pink shimmer and were still held close together, not at the 45 degree angle that gives the species its name. With any luck, in a few weeks she would be laying eggs in the bamboo grove by the water’s edge.
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The roast chestnut stands were raising the temperature of the city streets while people roasted in the October sun. In the park, where benches in the shade were at a premium, there were other reminders it was officially no longer summer: the rustling of squirrels picking acorns in the oaks, or the engrossed silence of parakeets gorging on berries and seeds. One day the grass was cut, and a flock of swallows paused to dip and dive and feast on the disturbed insects. Pedralbes Park is on the busy Diagonal road, a causeway for migrating hirundines, just like the coast.
A new sign has appeared at the pond: “Urban diversity protection programme. Amphibian reproduction point.” Hopefully, pond life will be allowed to develop undisturbed and the bright spark who thought to drain and scrub it out mid-May will now be restrained. Sheltering from the heat, I sat down under the Buckthorn tree to watch the legion of Darters† who’d gathered to mate.
One had set up his territory in front and hovered in a haze of just-discernable wing-movement. I was awestruck by this display of energy. It only allowed itself the briefest of rests on the ledge. These breaks would last all of 2 seconds before it zipped off in pursuit of a rival Darter, driving it into another part of the pond. As well as aerial pursuits, there was also a lot of ovipositing going on, the darters still in tandem as the female dipped into the water.
Even more copious, though much less conspicuous, were the Western Willow Spreadwings. They’ve been in the park throughout summer and autumn, barely noticeable except as a spindly insect presence, dangling off leaf tips.
But if one lands nearby you notice their beautiful green and coppery colouring, and their astonishing eyes. Our eyes, set deep in sockets, are half hidden. These orbs are on full display.
On this day there were couples of Spreadwings dangling all over the place, looking for a quiet spot. One pair alighted in the Buckthorn tree. The male clasped the branch and then his long straight abdomen began to fold. He slowly lifted the female, like a dancer raising his partner.
She reciprocated by thrusting her abdomen up in the air, until they were linked together in a jagged heart. While he clung to the branch, she clasped her abdomen. They remained like this, rocking gently from side to side.
†This year I’ve seen 5 Dragonfly species in the park: the Broad Scarlet Darter (Crocothemis erythraea), Blacktailed Skimmer (Orthetrum cancellatum), Red-veined Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii), Desert Darter (Sympetrum sinaiticum) and the Emperor Dragonfly (Anax imperator). On this occasion, despite clicking away, I somehow managed to avoid all the best ID angles! They might have been Common Darters, but a positive ID is impossible.
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