Our Freshwater Flagship Species
9 June 2025
Let’s take a look at our freshwater flagship species, and starting off with a real dazzler – the Banded Demoiselle.
This damselfly lives along the edges of our rivers, ponds and lakes – the male is a beautiful metallic blue and with a distinctive dark patch along its wings, and the female is more metallic green, and equally stunning!
When breeding, females will inject eggs into the stem of water plants under the surface of the water, and once hatched, the larvae will live on the riverbed, feeding and growing, for up to 2 years before emerging as adults.
They are flying throughout the summer from May to August or later, so now is the time to look out for them! Have you spotted any of these beauties recently?
Banded Demoiselle – photo by Jim Higham
A feisty little contender up next in our flagship freshwater species – the Stickleback!
Maybe you caught sticklebacks in a jam jar as a child, but did you know that sticklebacks are related to seahorses and pipefish? With distinct spines on their dorsal fin, these little chaps are quite unusual characters as far as fish-behaviour goes – during mating season, the male will develop a bright red belly. He builds a “nest” on the riverbed, and guards fertilised eggs ferociously, even continuing his protective behaviour after the fry have hatched out! Amazing little creatures!
Stickleback – Photo by Sussex Wildlife Trust
And so to our Freshwater flagship species runner-up – it’s Ratty himself, although of course, he isn’t a rat – he is a water vole!
Water voles live in banks along the edges of our rivers, streams, lakes and ponds – they feed exclusively on vegetation around the water’s edge, and because they like to feed in the same spot, you can often see signs of water voles by a “mown lawn” look to the areas they feed.
During breeding season, water voles can have multiple successive litters – up to six in a year! However, despite their ability to produce a lot of young, their numbers have dropped dramatically in recent decades, largely because of predation from invasive mink.
Nature recovery action for water voles includes mink control, and providing them with greater protection from reedbed creation, as well as breeding programmes that can help to bolster their numbers.
Water Vole
Did you see that flash of blue as you relaxed by the river? That was our freshwater flagship species WINNER, and it was, of course, the Kingfisher!
This iconic species primarily feeds on minnows, and, one of our other freshwater contenders, sticklebacks, but will also eat invertebrates – they need to eat around 60% of their own bodyweight everyday to survive. They burrow into steep banks to create their nests – at this point in the year their clutches of around 6 eggs will be hatching, so adults will be busy hunting to feed themselves and their hungry young.
Whilst Kingfisher populations are widely distributed across the country, their numbers are dropping – waterway pollution and unpredictable weather caused by climate impacts are major threats to these sensitive birds.
A deserving winner, and one that we hope the Local Nature Recovery Strategy will support far into the future.
Kingfisher – Photo by Jim Higham
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