Though the British Dragonfly Society website says this species ‘favours lakes, slow rivers, ponds and occasionally marshy area[s], that have open water and bare patches along the shore’, I usually find Black-tailed skimmers (Orthetrum cancellatum) locally in wildflower fields and along woodland rides, not always with water or damp habitat nearby.

Perhaps it’s their flexibility in preferred habitat that has enabled this dragonfly to spread so widely – the BDS website again: ‘Quite common in south-east Britain. This species has spread significantly in both England and Wales since the late 1980s.’ Although I saw my first Black-tailed skimmer of the year over three weeks ago, on 2 June, this particular skimmer is the first I’ve managed to get close enough to for reasonable photographs.