Thursday 11 June 2009

The poor weather last weekend saw no dragonflies/damselflies at Greens Norton on Saturday. A short clearance in the weather on Sunday saw me at the Rive Tove for the continuance of the British Dragonfly Monitoring scheme. The river was slightly up and water levels were just above the lily pads preventing Red Eyed Damselflies from appearing. Numbers of both Beautiful and Banded Demoiselles were both down, although one pair of Banded were found in tandem. Azure 5; Blue Tailed 2; White Legged Damselfly 16 and only One Large Red Damselfly were noted.
Monday 8th at Greens Norton Pocket Park produced 47 Azures the majority of which were well away from the pond in long grass and nettles. One Beautiful Demoiselle and one blue tailed were also noted.
Tuesday 9th saw a visit to the Oxford Canal. The weather was overcast, cool and odd sunny intervals which did not last long. Blue Tailed, White Legged, a couple of Banded Demoiselle females and a single male Beautiful Demoiselle were noted on the canal.
The main reason for the visit was to check whether the small Beautiful Demoiselle colony was still present. A check of the area at 10:30 produced nothing. However at 11.15 the same site was checked again 6 (2 male and 4 female) were found at the roost site with 4 Banded Demoiselle ( 2 male and 2 female). Some of the surrounding area had had some clearance work undertaken which has opened up the canal/river area.