Thursday, 17 June 2021

DRAGONFLIES AND DAMSELFLIES

 


A dull day for my day off this week, but still  pretty warm at 21 degrees  so I decided to go in search of a few  odonata.  Whelford Pools (Glos wildlife trust) and Lower Moor Farm  ( Wilts wildlife trust)are good places to look for dragonflies and damselflies and boast  a good number of  different species.

I started off by visiting Whelford pools where common blue damselflies were everywhere on the vegetation. At a small  pool as you enter the reserve I stopped on the wooden decked area . A female emperor dragonfly was egg laying in the water, and amongst the numerous damselflies I picked out common blue, red eyed and blue tailed. 

Further on  into the reserve I found black tailed skimmers and four spotted chasers. Butterflies included two speckled wood, a red admiral and a small tortoiseshell; I also found a scarlet tiger moth.

I drove on to the reserve at Lower Moor Farm, but as I parked it began to  drizzle. However, it was still warm so I set off on a circular route which I knew.  Again there were numerous blue damselflies and good numbers of dragonflies,  but I was walking fairly quickly and saw no new species and  returned to the car. 

I should add that I have had up to a dozen common blue damselflies in the long grass  in the wild area of the garden at home. 

black tailed skimmer

blue tailed damselfly

common blue damselfly

four spotted chaser

red eyed damselfly


scarlet tiger moth

emperor dragonfly (f)
common blue damselfly at Stonecote
     



 

No comments:

Post a Comment

TRIP TO SUSSEX

  It's been a while since I've visited Sussex, so when a  friend suggested meeting up I decided to book an airbnb for a couple of ni...