Dragonflies and Damselflies

Despite the cloudy weather, this Sunday’s guided dragonfly walk was a successful one.

The afternoon was spent wandering through the wetlands of Foxglove Covert, learning all about Oodonata, searching for damselflies and dragonflies zooming over ponds and sheltering amongst vegetation, and even admiring some of them up close.

In just a few hours 9 different species were spotted. All the species of damselfly which have been recorded on site were seen: Common Blue, Azure, Blue Tailed, Emerald and Large Red.

A good range of dragonfly species were also seen, including Common Hawker, Common Darter, Ruddy Darter and Emperor dragonfly.

When dragonflies and damselflies first emerge from their larval stage, they have very shiny wings and thier bodies are often a very pale colour. The Common Darter in the image above is a freshly emerged male, and over time will turn from a pale brown to bright red colour!

Thank you to Keith and June for your time and expertise.