Saturday, 11 May 2019

A walk around Kinewell Lake

The spell of wet and windy weather is now over and as we move into high pressure we took a walk around Kinewell Lake in Ringstead. The sunshine allowed >500 Common Blue, Red-eyed and Blue-tailed Damselflies to bask in its warmth, along with around 10 Banded Demoiselle. I found a male Hairy Dragonfly close to the river, with his wings still closed. Thanks to Graham Bentley, a Northants dragonfly enthusiast we know that this species takes its first flight and then lands up and closes its wings again, presumably to avoid predation. My first Azure Damselfly completed the set of 5 species.

Immature male Red-eyed Damselfly

Immature female Azure Damselfly

Immature female Common Blue Damselfly

Close-up of the above Common Blue