Emerald Damselflies

With all the excitement about Southern Emerald Damselflies, I thought I would look at some of our local normal Emerald Damselflies. Despite the cloudy conditions, we found several oviposting pairs. Interestingly, they were egg laying in spike rush stems quite some distance from the water, presumably to allow the stems to die back over winter and provide some protection until the eggs hatch in the spring.

Migrant Hawkers emerging

At Ditchford, on a hot but windy afternoon my son located our first Migrant Hawker exuviae along with several Emperors. Flying were a few Emperors, Brown Hawkers with many females oviposting in the muddy banks, and the usual Damselflies including an Emerald, the first sighting here in over 7 years. I have always wondered why I have never seen Emeralds here.

Small Red-eyes at Wicksteed Park and Abdingdon Meadow

I discovered a walk from Weetabix, up the River Ise to the nature trail at Wicksteed Park. In the scorching heat on Friday I went to have a look. The fishing pond had many Red-eyes, several Small Red-eyes including oviposting pairs, Fourspotted Chaser, Brown Hawker, Emperor, Common Blue, Blue-tail and Black-tailed Skimmer. The main lake by the train track also had ovipostoing Small Red-eyes. These are new sites for this species.

Doug Goddard reports Small Red-eyes at Abingdon Meadow, along with Emperors, Brown Hawker, Four-spots and Black-tailed Skimmer.

Small Red-eyed Damselfies at Higham Ferrers Pits

This lunchtime, the weather cleared from what was a dull morning with spots of rain (rain - what's that I hear you ask?). By 1230hrs, it was bright sunshine and 25 degrees. There were many Small Red-eyes visible from the fishing stands with several pairs in cop and ovipsoting. There were also many Red-eyes, Common Blues, Blue-tails, Four-spotted Chaser, Brown Hawker and Emperors, but it was the Small Red-eyes that attracted my attention. I came heer last week ans saw none.

A day at Yardley Chase

With the rest of the family occupied, I took Alex to the Chase for days dragonfly hunting. There was a lot of activity, mainly oviposting Emperors and Four-spotted Chaser. Only a couple of Downys remained and none stuck around to be photographed. The highlight was seeing several Ruddy Darter and Emerald Damselflies. The Azure Damselflies took exception to the oviposting Emperors, by continuously hasselung them. This is a well known phenomena, which hasn't been fully explained yet. From the observations I made I have a theory which I will include in a future edition of Dragonfly News.