Somehow between downpours we managed a Biolinks recording day on Tuesday at Whixall Moss and Alderford Lake. At Whixall we were treated to 8 species including White-faced Darters, numerous White-legged Damselflies and a good number of teneral Emerald Damselflies. Alderford Lake produced the first known Black-tailed Skimmer sighting this year in Shropshire- the immature male photographed by Stephen Barlow (left) showing all the patterns and coloration also seen on females. Damselflies were in good numbers at Alderford and Stephen’s photos of two mating pairs below provide a nice comparison of Common Blue (middle) and Azure (right) damselfly. We also saw numerous Blue-tailed Damselflies in a range of colour forms. The picture below (left) shows a female with the bicoloured pterostigma just visible on the wings.
