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La tourbe is French for peat and les tourbières are peat diggings. Les Tourbières de Vendoire lie in the Périgord vert region near the small village of Vendoire, north-west of the gastronomically famous town of Périgueux – truffle country – and south of Angoulême. They were worked until the 1950s but the old diggings are now flooded and maintained as a nature reserve. It doesn’t appear to have a very high profile but I learned of its existence from a BDS [British Dragonfly Society] publication which mentioned, I think, that it supported in excess of 40 species of Odonata.
What a draw! We called in for our first exploratory visit on our meandering way back north from the Languedoc to visit friends in the Marais Poitevin. We stayed at a campsite that turned out to be literally 200m/yds away from the car park for les tourbières. Since we were outside of the main tourist season, it was relaxingly quiet. There appeared to be a few long-term installations but those units turned out to be unoccupied. With the added advantage that the couple running the place were delightful, finding a pleasant campsite so conveniently situated to our target habitat was bliss.
We were at Vendoire for only two days and, given the weather we had been experiencing, I couldn’t believe our luck; the weekend was perfect for Odos and me. The nature reserve is a series of some ten or so now flooded pits, bordered on the west and east by two modestly sized rivers. The mix of habitat types provided by the ponds/lakes is quite varied. These, together with the two rivers, offer a grand variety of conditions for the Odos. Hence, presumably, the boast of 40+ species. Actually, the couple running the campsite mentioned a number more like 50 species.
In our short visit amounting to a day plus two hours, we amassed a count of 28 species, one of which remains uncertain because it refused steadfastly to settle for a positive id, though I’m cautiously confident. In any event, the weather certainly showed off this place to very good advantage. I loved it, it’s brilliant!
Here’s what we spotted.
Damselflies
- Banded Demoiselle
- Beautiful Demoiselle
- Willow Emerald
- Winter Damselfly
- Blue-tailed Damselfly
- Common Blue Damselfly
- Azure Damselfly
- Large Red-eyed Damselfly
- Small Red-eyed Damselfly
- Goblet-marked Damselfly
- Large Red Damselfly
- White-legged Damselfly
- Orange White-legged Damselfly
Dragonflies
- Emperor Dragonfly
- Lesser Emperor
- Yellow Clubtail
- Green-eyed Hooktail
- Yellow-spotted Emerald [this was the uncooperative best guess]
- Four-spotted Chaser
- Broad-bodied Chaser
- Scarce Chaser
- Black-tailed Skimmer
- White-tailed Skimmer
- Southern Skimmer
- Ruddy Darter
- Common Darter
- Southern Darter
- Scarlet Darter
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