When I first visited Maesteg on 22 July, as a result of the heatwaves and drought, there was scarcely any water in the ponds and hardly any odonata species, just two Common darters, and a single Blue-tailed damselfly. As we’ve had a reasonable amount of rain since the drought broke around 18 August, I hoped things would have improved, so I went for another visit last Friday. Although the ponds now held a lot of water, there were only three dragonfly species present, and no damselflies at all, though I saw Emerald damselflies at this site last year and they should still be on the wing. The most prolific species was the Common darter; there were several males perched and in flight, as well as at least two pairs of males and females in cop and egg-laying.

Initially, I thought they were all I was going to see, then another dragon appeared and, like all hawkers, just kept flying and flying and flying, continually prowling the ponds looking for a female to mate with. If there was one, she was staying well hidden. I managed to get this very poor flight shot that was at least good enough to confirm, for recording purposes, that he was a Common hawker, my first – probably the only – Common hawker I will see this year.

I had been walking around the site for perhaps an hour, during which time the sun had mostly disappeared behind thick cloud, and I was beginning to think I should probably just head back to the train station when I picked up a movement below me, to my right, on a slab of stone. I had noticed that the Common darters were often to be seen sitting on the stones, presumably because they held any residual heat from the fleeting glimpses of sun. I watched for a while but couldn’t see anything so walked away but, before I did head back to the town, I checked one more time. And there it was, a single male Black darter, my first for 2026, sitting on the stone.