Castle Fraser

Such a great afternoon at Castle Fraser learning about dragonflies with Sam. I know, i know, it's like the hair bear bunch going on a picnic but i get top mum points surely. While we sat for a wee talk from the Scottish dragonfly lady in the summerhouse..yes, there is a national dragonfly lady....a swarm of bees suddenly appeared and it was a mad rush to get the doors shut. After that wee bit of excitement we saw a mad looking group of massive parasitic wasps get to work, not on us thankfully, harmless to us. On the walk to the ponds we saw white spotted ladybirds, two foxes and a red necked footman moth...now the latter has only been spotted at the castle these past 5 years as sadly they like mossy stuff on trees that grow in more polluted areas. Things are changing.

The pond was full of beautiful damselflies and dragonflies and sam found huge exuvias....yes, i learned a new word....it's what the dragonfly larva shed up to 8 times as they mature in the water over 3-5 years, eventually climbing up a reed and emerging from their last casing, hanging out for a couple of hours to harden and dry before flying off and developing their full colour over the next two days. They leave the exuvia on the reed. Exuvia...such a weird word.....

We spent so long there we were too late for the castle cake shop...i could have right gone a massive slice of victoria sponge....