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| Searching for dragonflies |
Starting from the Minions Heritage Centre, Steve gave a short introduction and spoke of the objectives of recording these species together with an explanation of the needs and requirements of recording. He then gave out a useful handout about the species found in the county before moving to the wet gully between Cheesewring and Golddiggers.
Within this wet area, the party immediately saw a number of damselflies and Steve demonstrated how to search for the exuviae around the edges of pools and in the reeds.
The initially misty day brightened up and the group was entertained first by one dragonfly and then a flying display, or more likely, a battle over territory between two males. Further exuviae were found illustrating that although only two dragonflies were seen flying, there had been many more that had hatched and either dispersed or been taken by prey.
Thanks to all of you that attended this dragonfly walk and to Jane for organising the event. The species that we came across during the morning included: 300x Common Blue Damselfly - Enallagma cyathigerum, 4x Blue-tailed Damselfly - Ischnura elegans, 2x Large Red Damselfly - Pyrrhosoma nymphula, 1x Emerald Damselfly - Lestes sponsa, 6x Keeled Skimmers - Orthetrum coerulescens, 2x Emperor Dragonfly - Anax imperator (including 5x exuviae), 3x Common Hawker - Aeshna juncea (exuviae only), 1x Golden Ringed Dragonfly - Cordulegaster boltonii. That's 8 species in all, a very worthwhile set of records.
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