Mr and Ms Beautiful demoiselle

27 Wednesday May 2026

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Beautiful Demoiselle, British dragonflies, British odonata, Calopteryx Virgo, dragonflies, Odonata, RSPB Radipole

I didn’t spend a lot of time looking for odonata species during my recent visit to Weymouth, partly due to the weather conditions – when it was sunny, there was almost always a strong cold wind blowing through the areas where I usually find dragonflies, but also because the RSPB has made the decision, despite the protests of very many people, not to spend money on maintaining many of the footpaths at both the Lodmoor and Radipole nature reserves, meaning some areas are already becoming inaccessible. (I won’t go in to my opinion about the RSPB here – suffice to say it couldn’t get much lower, and the organisation will never again receive any financial support from me.)

On the one afternoon the weather was favourable, I was exceedingly lucky to find several species that were my first sightings for 2026. The Blue-tailed and Red-eyed damselflies will be covered in future blogs, when/if I get more and better photos of them at home in south Wales, but I couldn’t resist sharing these images I did manage to get of the aptly named male (above) and female (below) Beautiful demoiselles (Calopteryx virgo) that were wonderfully entertaining as they flitted amongst the tall reeds along the edge of a path at Radipole. Such gorgeous creatures!

A bumper day, part 1

07 Thursday May 2026

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Azure damselfly, Brachytron pratense, British damselflies, British dragonflies, British odonata, Coenagrion puella, Common blue damselfly, Enallagma cyathigerum, Hairy dragonfly, Odonata

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).

First dragon of 2026

04 Monday May 2026

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British dragonflies, British odonata, Broad-bodied Chaser, Libellula depressa, Odonata

This week’s posts will all be about flying creatures, the latest flying creatures to grace our skies, the most recent species of odonata and lepidoptera to begin their short lives, much to my everlasting delight (not, I hasten to add, my delight in the fact that they have short lives but, rather, that I and so many others and many of you can delight in sharing the air with these stunning creatures). I’ve already written about my first odonata species of 2026, the Large red damselflies that featured in my post published on 25 April, First damsels of 2026. Today, I present my first large dragonfly of the year, a surprise Broad-bodied chaser (Libellula depressa) that flitted out from the hedgerow I was passing on 22 April, a much earlier sighting that in previous years.

First damsels of 2026

25 Saturday Apr 2026

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British dragonflies, damselfly, dragonfly, Large Red damselfly, Odonata, Pyrrhosoma nymphula

This has been an exciting week as new species of insects seem to have been emerging each and every day.

The Large red damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) is usually my first odonata species of the year, and this year is no exception. In fact, I spotted my first two on Tuesday, the 21st, the exact same date as last year, though in a different location.

And this week’s fine weather and warm temperatures have meant that more damselflies have emerged very quickly. When I returned to Cosmeston Lakes Country Park on Thursday, I found ten Large reds, and I’m sure there were more lurking in the vegetation.

O is for Odonata

20 Saturday Dec 2025

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Black darter, British dragonflies, British odonata, dragonfly, Odonata, Scarce chaser

As I mentioned earlier in this end-of-year countdown, 2025 has been a very good year for odonata finds. As well as the Norfolk hawker, the Common hawker and the Keeled skimmer I’ve already included in this countdown, I was privileged this year to see my first ever Scarce chaser (Lifer: Scarce chaser, 19 June) and only my second ever sighting of Black darters (Black darter, 23 August) (below).

Somewhat unexpectedly, I also saw a Scarce chaser on a subsequent occasion, a couple of weeks after my first sightings of them in Weymouth, this time in Tiddesley Wood near Pershore in Worcestershire, when I used Cheltenham as my base to explore several places in the surrounding area. That slightly kinky individual is the one pictured below.

H is for hawkers

13 Saturday Dec 2025

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British dragonflies, British odonata, Common hawker, dragonfly, Hawker dragonflies, Norfolk hawker, Odonata

What a grand year 2025 has been for dragonfly sightings, partly because, since downsizing my home situation, I’ve finally been able to afford to venture further afield – nothing too adventurous, no trips abroad, but four lovely little mini-breaks in English locations to look for wildlife I’m not able to see closer to home.

That’s how, during a wonderful week in Weymouth in June, I saw my first ever Norfolk hawkers (see Lifer: Norfolk hawker, 18 June) (above). However, my second ‘first-ever’ hawker species sighting (see Lifer: Common hawker, 22 August) (below) was here in Wales, in a small town high in one of the south Wales valleys that I hadn’t previously visited and didn’t know was home to a pond that held some very nice dragonfly species. That visit was a good reminder to explore more widely here in Wales next year, as well as in England.

Lingering

23 Thursday Oct 2025

Posted by sconzani in autumn, insects

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autumn insects, British butterflies, British dragonflies, Common Darter, Odonata, Red Admiral, Speckled wood

Looking out the window now, as Storm Benjamin drenches us with heavy rain, it seems hard to believe there was some bright sunshine this morning. I happened to be at Lavernock Nature Reserve at exactly the right time to feel the warmth of that sun and I wasn’t the only one to enjoy the feeling. Although I haven’t seen any butterflies or dragonflies for at least a week, and thought I’d probably seen my last for the year, but it turns out they’re still lingering unseen, and out they popped to bask in the sun’s heat:

A Red admiral

A Common darter

And a Speckled wood.

Lesser emperor

30 Tuesday Sep 2025

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Anax parthenope, British dragonflies, dragonfly, Lavernock Nature Reserve, Lesser emperor, migrant dragonflies, Odonata

Last Tuesday, though I didn’t realise it until later in the day, I finally saw a stationary Lesser emperor dragonfly (Anax parthenope). My previous encounters with this dragon have been when I’ve seen one, usually fleetingly and at distance, hawking over a body of water. These stunning (ha!) flight shots of the Lesser emperor were taken at Cosmeston’s west lake on 16 August 2023 and looking over the River Ely at Grangemoor Park on 25 July 2025, where I only just managed to catch the dragon before it exited, frame right.

The British Dragonfly Society website reports that this dragonfly was first reported in the UK, in Gloucestershire, in 1996, and first recorded breeding in Cornwall in 1999. I don’t know whether the specimens we see here in south Wales are dragons that have bred here or migrants but I suspect the Lesser emperor I saw last Tuesday was a migrant as I found it at Lavernock Nature Reserve, just a few metres from the sea cliff edge. And, though there is a pond at Lavernock, it routinely dries up during the summer – and certainly did in this year’s drought, so the dragonfly is unlikely to have bred at the reserve.

As I admitted in my opening sentence, I didn’t initially recognise this dragon. ‘It’s just another Migrant hawker’, I thought to myself, and, as it was perched in some scrub and partially obscured by the vegetation, it was difficult to see and photograph. Now, I’m just glad I did take photos or I’d never have realised what I’d seen, nor been able to prove it.

Emerald damsels

27 Wednesday Aug 2025

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British damselflies, British dragonflies, damselfly, dragonfly, Emerald damsefly, Lestes sponsa, Odonata

This is the final blog in my short series about the dragonflies I saw during last week’s rail journey up the south Welsh valleys to Maesteg. Today’s subject is the Emerald damselfly (Lestes sponsa), a species I’ve seen only twice before, in August 2017 and in September 2021. I’ve looked for them a couple of times at the 2021 location, Parc Penallta, but the small ponds there quickly dry out in hot summers and dog walkers allow their charges to splash about in them, displacing more water and polluting the water with the dogs’ chemical flea treatments. These are probably some of the reasons why the population of this damselfly species has been in steady decline since the 1990s.

Emeralds are relatively large for damselflies and rest with their wings outspread, hence their European common name, Common spreadwing. Their bodies are metallic green, though the colours of some parts of their abdomens vary depending on whether they are male or female, immature or aging. Emeralds favour shallow standing waters, like bog pools and ponds, especially when these are surrounded by tall grasses, rushes and sedges.

Black darter

23 Saturday Aug 2025

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Black darter, Black darter female, Black darter male, British dragonflies, dragonfly, Odonata, Sympetrum danae

Before Thursday’s trip to Maesteg, I’d only ever seen a Black darter (Sympetrum danae) once before, and that was a fluke sighting at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park back in 2017. I say fluke because, like yesterday’s Common hawker, the Black darter is a dragonfly that prefers the acidic conditions of peat bogs, moorland ponds and ditches. How one got to Cosmeston I have no idea.

I was lucky to find several male Black darters at Maesteg ponds and, as you can see, they really are almost entirely black, with just a few yellow markings on the sides of their thorax and abdomen, and on top of their lower abdomen.

I was also extremely lucky to find a single female, basking on a patch of grass. As the photo below shows, she looks very different from the male, with much more yellow than black. At around 30mm long, both of these darters are quite small, about 10mm smaller than the Common darters that most of us are very familiar with. Now that I know about this location, I’ll be back to visit them again next year.