Scarce Chasers now emerging at Wadenhoe

During last year's poor spring, the Scarce Chasers on the Nene started to emerge around 24 May. This year, with the even worse spring, I saw the first ones today, 1 week late. I did think that by now the dragonflies would have caught up with the weather, but we are still about 1 week behind schedule. I managed to find just two tenerals, so there are still plenty more to come and the predicted good weather this weekend may see a mass emergence. Also present were 100+ Banded Demoiselle (a good increase on the 30 last weekend), a handful of Large Red Damselflies and a single Azure Damselfly.

Male

Close-up of the wings

Male Banded Demoiselle eating a Stonefly

Two more species seen

I split my recording in two today, visiting the Nene at Wadenhoe looking for emerging Scarce Chasers this morning and Maxey Pits this afternoon looking for Variable Damselflies. The morning was cool and breezy but bright. No Scarce Chaser were around but I did see 20+ Banded Demoiselle and 1 Large Red Damselfly.

At Maxey, with higher temperatures and less wind there were around 30 Variable Damselflies including immatures, mature males and females and a couple of exuviae (new to my collection). Also present were a few immature Azure Damselflies, Blue-tailed Damselflies, Red-eyed Damselflies and Large Red Damselflies.

Large Red Damselfly

 




















Female Banded Demoiselle

Emerging Banded Demoiselle

Female Variable Damselfly

Male Variable Damselfly

Male Variable Damselfly

Things are really moving now

At Ditchford this lunchtime three new species were emerging and taking their first flights - adult activity is now about 1 week late which is an improvement on this time last week. The next species due to emerge is the Banded Demoiselle, which should be very soon so keep an eye around the Nene and other rivers.

50+ emerging Blue-tailed Damselflies, 10+ emerging Common Blue Damselflies, 5+ emerging Azure Damselflies, 5+ emerging Red-eyed Damselflies and 6 emerging Hairy Dragonflies.

Female Hairy Dragonfly



Female Blue-tailed Damselfly

Male Blue-tailed Damselfly

Male Common Blue Damselfly

Male Azure Damselfly

Two more species appear

Well, it is still slow going out there and the recent weather hasn't helped. At Ditchford I have now found Hairy Dragonflies and Blue-tailed Damselflies (sorry no photos).

Large Red Damselfly emerging

Another early morning start enabled me to capture this sequence of shots of a Large Red Damselfly emerging. The whole sequence took about 2 hours. There were about 10 others emerging and a few exuviae that may have been from yesterday.

At last, the season starts

The cold weather at the end of March and into early April has had a definate effect on emergence this year. Large Red Damselflies are normally seen from around 22 April and certainly by the beginning of May. This year though, nothing! I took an early morning trip out in the hope that the recent spell of bright sunny weather had stimulated emergence and only found one Large Red Damselfly. The coming Bank Holiday looks good too, so we may see a major catch-up.