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| Red-eyed Damselfly |
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| Blue-tailed Damselfly - note the blue spots on the top of the eyes |
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| Common Blue Damselfly |
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| Common Blue Damselfly exuvia |
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| Male Hairy Dragonfly |
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| Hairy Dragonfly with damaged wings |
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| Male Hairy Dragonfly with exuvia |
Wednesday 30 April 2014
3 more species appear
Despite the misty morning conditions, today turned out really warm and sunny at lunchtime. I returned to Ditchford to see what was around and my first sighting was of a Red-eyed Damselfly taking its maiden flight. This was followed by several more, Blue-tailed Damselflies and Common Blue Damselflies. I was attracted by the two bright blue spots on the back of the eyes on the Blue-tailed, as you can see in the picture below. The male Common Blue was turning blue, so must be a couple of days old. There were also 6 emerging Hairy Dragonflies and another 8 new exuviae. One of the Hairys had damaged wings, possibly due to the cool misty conditions. The damage wasn't as bad as I have seen before, so he may yet survive. I was surprised that there were no Azure Damselflies as they often emerge at the same time as these others.
