Dragons and Damsels
8th May 2008, ThursdayAs with the moths, the warm weather has tempted out the dragonflies and damselflies. The weekly count today found several ‘damsels’ including Large Red Damselfly (near Castle Water Hide, the only place they occur on the reserve), Common Blue Damselfly and Blue-tailed Damselfly. Immatures of the latter species occur in a range of colour forms, including blue/green, violet and a delightful pink form (below). The only ‘dragon’ on the wing at the moment is Hairy Hawker (see here), perhaps the rarest regularly occurring species on the reserve.
