23 Saturday Dec 2023
Posted in insects
2023 was a good year for me for odonata. On 26 June, just five days after seeing my first Small red-eyed damselflies, I found my first ever Ruddy darter (Sympetrum sanguineum), though this was a female so did not look at all like her ‘ruddy’ name. My 30 June blog, Lifer: Ruddy darter, tells the story, and I already have a note in my 2024 schedule to look for more of these at the country park near this year’s find spot.
08 Friday Sep 2023
Posted in insects
I’ve been taking photos of the many Common darter dragonflies I’ve seen during recent months, thinking I’d choose one or two to post on here. Now, though, I’m feeling particularly indecisive about which photos I prefer so, instead, I’ve used them to compile a short slideshow. Enjoy!
21 Monday Aug 2023
Posted in insects
Though I’m still hoping to spot another damselfly species, the Migrant hawker (Aeshna mixta) is probably the last of the larger dragonfly species I’ll see this year. I’ve spent many an enjoyable minute or ten watching these beauties flying back and forth along the edges of woodland rides and local pathways, waiting hopefully for them to perch, only to have them fly above the trees and disappear, or stop in a place too distant for photographs. So, I was especially grateful when this hawker proved to be much more cooperative.
27 Thursday Jul 2023
Posted in insects
Tags
British dragonflies, British odonata, dragonfly, Forest Farm Nature Reserve, Southern hawker, Southern hawker ovipositing
She was my first Southern hawker dragonfly of the year and she wasn’t making life easy for herself. There must have been a male Southern hawker in the vicinity as this lovely lady had already mated and was busy laying her eggs. However, she picked a very difficult location for ovipositing, underneath the wire netting that secures the wooden edge of the dragonfly pond at Forest Farm Nature Reserve. This did mean she was almost a captive subject for my lens, though the wire obscured her quite a bit, and the location wasn’t exactly easily accessible for her – I heard her wings rubbing against the wire as she entered. Her body was also squashed, making it a little difficult for her to manipulate herself in to the best position to place her eggs. I took a few photos and left her to her awkward endeavours.
30 Friday Jun 2023
Posted in insects
I’m on an odonata roll! Last week my first Small red-eyed damsel, this week my first Ruddy darter, though I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t know it was a Ruddy darter when I took this photograph. Initially, I thought I was seeing my first Common darter of the year. But, when I got home and looked more closely at the couple of photos I got, I realised it didn’t look right for a Common darter. This dragonfly had all-black legs (no yellow stripe down them) and the top of the thorax was all one colour (no contrasting stripes). I consulted my book and thought I’d worked it out but sent my photo to the county recorder for dragonflies to check. His response came back fairly quickly – it was a Ruddy darter (Sympetrum sanguineum), a female so not ruddy in colour as the male is. The British Dragonfly Society website has excellent photos of both genders, as well as comparison shots with other dragonflies, which I find really useful.
03 Saturday Jun 2023
The dragon with the golden rings – that sounds like something out of The Lord of the Rings; reminds me of the dragon sleeping on its huge horde of gold under the mountain. But no, this particular dragon is a dragonfly, and the golden rings are the marks that encircle its body. Hence its name, the Golden-ringed dragonfly (Cordulegaster boltonii). This is not a dragonfly I see locally but was a stunning surprise during a recent visit to Parc Penallta, a park on a former coal tip in the Welsh Valleys.
31 Wednesday May 2023
Posted in insects
Tags
British dragonflies, Broad-bodied Chaser, chaser dragonflies, dragonfly, Four-spotted Chaser, Libellula depressa, Libellula dragonflies, Libellula quadrimaculata
There are three common or locally common species of chaser dragonflies, the Libellula, in Britain – so far, I’ve only seen two of them, the two shown here, the Four-spotted chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata) and the Broad-bodied chaser (Libellula depressa). I’ve just been checking the Welsh biodiversity database and found that the third species, the Scarce chaser (Libellula fulva), can be found at a couple of local sites, so I need to make finding that species a priority. Meantime, these other two chasers are active now around ponds and small lakes so do try and spot yourself a dragon or two if you’re out walking in your local countryside.
Four-spotted chaser
Broad-bodied chaser (male)
16 Tuesday May 2023
Posted in insects
The British Dragonfly Society website describes this lovely creature as the ‘UK’s smallest, hairiest Hawker that emerging [sic] before other Hawkers in May’, so the name Hairy dragonfly (Brachytron pratense) seems appropriate. The website also says it is ‘mainly found near unpolluted, well-vegetated water bodies’, though this particular beastie was in a secluded woody clearing, with a probably polluted (as once a quarry), definitely not well-vegetated lake a couple of hundred metres away. So, don’t write off the possibility if you see a potential Hairy dragonfly in an odd habitat! All that being said, this is a species I don’t see very often so I was very pleased to have found one.
02 Tuesday May 2023
Posted in insects
I was scanning an area of low plants and exposed stones on a site that was once a quarry, then rubbish tip, hoping to find my first Dingy skipper butterfly of the year when down dropped this gorgeous beastie, I don’t know from where. This, a week later than last year, was my first dragonfly of the year, at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park last Friday morning, a lovely Large red damselfly.
29 Monday Aug 2022
Posted in insects
A fanciful post on this bank holiday Monday: of course, this Common darter isn’t really winking – I just happened to have caught it moving its head up and back again – but, with a healthy dose of my vivid imagination, the movement has transformed into a cheeky wink.
earthstar 
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