Last Thursday, the final day of April, dawned sunny and clear-skied, though the cool nor’easterly that has plagued us recently was still blowing. Temperatures in the previous days had been warm and were forecast that day to rise to the high teens so I thought it might be worth checking sheltered places for any newly emerged dragonflies. That proved to be one of my better ideas as the day ended up being a bumper day for new sightings, both for the Odonata species shown here and for the butterflies that will feature in the blog I will publish tomorrow, A bumper day, part 2.

There is one small clearing at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park where I sometimes find early damsel- and dragonflies so I checked there first, and bingo! Just as I eased past the vegetation to peer in to the clearing, a dragonfly flew up and away.

My heart sank a little, but I waited. Five minutes later, the dragon returned but simply circled the clearing and flew off again. I waited. Another five minutes passed and, this time, after circling around the trees and shrubs once again, the dragon settled. This was my first Hairy dragonfly of the year, Brachytron pratense.

From the clearing I walked across to check a path leading down to the west lake, where there used to a bird hide before local youths burnt it down. At the top of the path, a particularly warm, sheltered spot was alive with many gorgeous little damselflies, basking on the leaves of Bramble and feeding on low-growing wildflowers. Although I had already seen several Large red damselflies before that day, the other two species, those shown here, were first sightings for 2026. The damselfly above is one of the Azure damselflies (Coenagrion puella) I saw, and below is a Common blue damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum).