Emperors at old Sulehay

Saturday pm was perfect dragonfly weather, so I visted Old Sulehay to find Emerald Damselflies as they are missing from this area, and a colony would fill a gap in the Northants atlas. Alas, no Emeralds, but there were 12 Emperors, including ovipositing females, Black-tailed Skimmer, Southern Hawker, Common Darter, Azure, Common Blue and Blue-tailed Damselflies. I managed a couple of decent in flight shots of the Emperors.

At last - an Emperor in flight

I managed to catch thios male Emperor in flight at Wilson's Pits this lunchtime. In total, Igot about 6 decent pictures. Fou males were present and one ovipositing female. Also present, a couple of Black-tailed Skimmer, loads of Common Blue Damselflies and Red-eyed Damselflies.

On the River Nene at Waddenhoe

I popped down to Waddenhoe this afternoon to see how the Scarce Chasers were doing. While the weather was sunny about 12 adults appeared including 3 mating pairs. Good numbers considering the time in their season. I was surprised by the lack of Banded Demoiselle - I only saw about 10 in total, including this beautiful female (photo above). Normally, several hundred would be flitting about the water. Emperors, Brown Hawker, Red-eyed Damselflies, Blue-tailed and Common Blues were also present, again in reduced numbers.

Emperors at Finedon Pocket Park

Doug Goddard sent me a few records from a pond at Finedon Pocket Park, which actually is very close to where I work, so I have been visiting weekly over the last couple of weeks. Today, in the sunshine I saw two male Emperors fighting over territory and this ovipositing female. A single, old male Four-spotted Chaser occassionally joined in and many Azures oviposited in the algae. In the reeds I found a good number of Southern Hawker exuviae and I disturbed 5 recently emerged Ruddy Darter. Unfortunaltely, they flew into the trees before I could get a decent shot.

Irthlingborough Pits Bioblitz

Have just returned from recording dragonflies at the Wildlife Trusts Bioblitz at Irchester Pits. In the first ditch we found a number of emerging Common Darter (the first records thisn year), along with Four-spotted Chaser and Black-tailed Skimmer larvae. Around the gravel pits, we recorded Brown Hawker, Emperor, (including many of both hawking amoung the grasses), Black-tailed Skimmer, Blue-tailed, Red-eyed, Common Blue and Azure Damselflies and Banded Demoiselle on the river.