Northamptonshire Dragonflies: Beautiful Demoiselles, Emerald Damselflies and Ruddy Darters

Monday 15 July 2013

Beautiful Demoiselles, Emerald Damselflies and Ruddy Darters

Over the last week or so, both Ruddy Darters and Emerald Damselflies have started to emerge. On 6 July, Bob Bullock saw the first Emerald Damselflies and on 9 July, Doug Goddard found Ruddy Darters emerging at the Whitestones Ponds, Twywell Hills & Dales.

Tony Vials saw a few Hairy Dragonflies at Summer Leys on 13 July, which is the latest date so far in Northants. Presumably, the late start to emergence in Spring has lead to a late end to the season too.

Beautiful Demoiselles are appearing at various locations along the Nene and Brampton Valley Way, with sightings at Kislingbury, Weedon, Brixworth and Hanging Houghton.

At Whitestones Ponds today, I was amazed to see 9 male Broad-bodied Chasers clashing madly over the three small ponds. One pond had 4 males at one point and the competition for the best territorial perch was so intense that they did not settle at all for over 10 mins. The other ponds saw Brown Hawker, Four-spotted Chaser, Azure Damselflies and many Ruddy Darters including two pairs ovipositing.