Dragonflies 2018

As the imaginative title may have suggested it's time for my annual look back on a year's worth of dragonfly spotting and I'll begin with a summary of my Northants highlights.

Variable Damselfly, Downy Emerald and Willow Emerald.

Despite a series of very cold snaps in March the season began only three days later than last year on the 22nd of April with several Large Red Damsels active at Priors Hall. Early May saw perhaps the biggest highlight of my year when I discovered a couple of male Variable Damselflies along the stream at Weldon. Subsequent visits over the month by multiple observers revealed a small population including several females and hopefully will lead to an established population. While there is a colony in the Soke of Peterborough at Maxey it appears that this may be the first one in the modern county of Northamptonshire.

December Common Darter and late October Brown Hawker.

My next high point was a visit to a private site in Yardley Chase with Phil Rogers for a guided walk by the county recorder in order to view Downy Emeralds at their only Northants site. Luckily several showed and they included one that posed very nicely as it sat on the recorder's hand! On the way home from here a stop at Hanging Houghton produced sightings of Beautiful Demoiselle which was one of only two times that I caught up with them this year.

Common Club-tail and White-faced Darter.

My final highlight came towards the end of the season in September when I saw a Willow Emerald at what had been their only county site at Finedon Pocket Park. While it took three visits to produce the goods it was worth it even though this turned out only the start of things. On the same day Alan Shorrock found one at a new site, Priors Hall, and I was lucky enough to see it too. Alan also saw one a week or so later at yet another new site, Fermyn Woods CP where our county recorder had seen one too. During October I found another one at Barnwell CP which was the fourth spot in the county for this colonising species. There appears to be a lot of potential habitat for them in Northants so 2019 will hopefully see them consolidate these first tentative steps and expand to other areas. Given that there was evidence of breeding at three of these sites it's looking encouraging.

Southern Emerald.

Away from these red letter sightings I was very happy to get my first December record of Common Darter with a sighting of a male at the ever dependable Priors Hall on the ninth. This meant that I'd seen this species in seven of the nine months that the season lasted for. Banded Demoiselles did not quite repeat their endurance feats from last year though they were still active until the very end of September and another species that hung around for longer than usual was Brown Hawker with several showing until late October.

Scarce Emerald and Southern Damselfly.

Away from the county several excursions brought a host of good records and these included several new ones as well as a few species that I haven't seen often. An outing to Worcs with Phil Rogers brought some excellent views of Club-tailed Dragonflies, a lifer. On the same day I got another new species at Whixhall Moss when I caught up with White-faced Darters, a real beauty. Phil also got me another tick in Bucks when we managed to see a Southern Emerald at what must be their most northerly site. A stop in Oxfordshire on the same day resulted in some more quality spotting with sightings of Southern Damselfly, Keeled Skimmer and Small Red Damselfly. My brother David took me to Thomson Common where I caught up with Scarce Emeralds and lots of mosquitoes. Ialso saw this species in Essex with Phil and Alan where we also saw a few Southern Migrant Hawkers. Alan and I took a trip over to Paxton Pits where we saw rather a lot of Norfolk Hawkers though these sadly turned out to be rather camera shy.

Small Red Damsel and Keeled Skimmer.

Thankfully there were not too many low points during the year, a dip on Lesser Emperor at Stanwick Lakes was unfortunate and I once again dipped on the Black Darters at their heathland sites in north Norfolk but that was it really. Next year I'd like to catch these elusive darters and also perhaps to catch up with Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies. On a more local footing it will be nice to monitor the Variable Damselfly and Willow Emerald situation while I'd like to check out the Welland for both Beautiful Demoiselles and Scarce Chasers. Perhaps I'll get a nice surprise, those Cambs Norfolk Hawkers are not too far away as the dragonfly flies......

Targets, Beautiful Demoiselle and Scarce Chaser.