Another thing that turned up in my river sampling was this beautiful demoiselle nymph. I placed it in my photographic aquarium and managed some close ups of this alien look creature. In this photo you can see the large ‘horn’ behind the eye which distinguishes it from the related banded demoiselle. I found it among…
A quick 1 photo post of a small red damselfly on Thursley Common.
Yesterday I had my annual trip to Thursley Common, the most species rich site for dragonflies and damselflies in the country. I managed some nice photos, including these black darters (my first of the year) which posed for some shots. The black mature males were flighty and I only managed this shot of one. Some…
Here is a video of a emerald damselfly (Lestes sponsa) doing ‘the worm!’ It is really using its abdomen to clean its wings, which was interesting to watch. You can tell from the video there was a bit of breeze yesterday!
Species number 4 in my series to celebrate National dragonfly week. Today the banded demoiselle, Calopteyx splendens. This species is usually found slow flowing rivers with muddy bottoms, but they can wander far from these habitats, I’ve seen them a long way from any flowing water. The male (photo above) is metallic blue with a…
Species number 3 in my series to celebrate National dragonfly week. Today the Large red damselfly, Pyrrhosoma nymphula. This species is well known to UK odonata fans as the first species to emerge, usually with the first sightings in April, but in exceptionally mild springs they can emerge in March, as some did in 2012.…
Day 2 of my dragonfly species a day to celebrate the British Dragonfly Society’s National Dragonfly week. Today we’ll look at the Scarce emerald, Lestes Dryas Like other emerald damselfly species they are emerald green in colour and they have a habit of sitting with their wings at 45 degrees to the body, rather than…
A couple of weeks ago I was watching a female emperor dragonfly ovipositing (egg laying) in a pond, when an azure damselfly started mobbing it. I took some video of it happening and 2 other instances and have put them together in the video below.
Today I popped into Bedfords Park for a break and to have look for red eyed damselflies. But what caught my attention were the many emperor dragonflies spread along the lake margin, each patrolling their territories and scrapping with each other where they crossed paths. Occasionally one would hover, and this one did at a…
On Tuesday I visited one of my favourite sites, Crockford Stream. The site is amazing for dragonflies and damselflies, including golden ringed dragonflies. The site is also a good one for the rare southern damselfly. It was good to see a few tandem pairs of these great little blue damselflies. The keeled skimmers were in…