I was fairly sure the minute I left Shropshire for a holiday the flight season would start! On 5th April Stephen Barlow recorded this Large Red Damselfly (left) at Whixall Moss. This is a Shropshire record, the previous earliest being recorded on 8th April. It is also surprisingly female as the males are known to typically emerge slightly earlier than the females. On 9th April David Williams saw another female at Holly Banks SWT Reserve (below left).
Stephen reports Large Reds are visible now daily at Whixall Moss though not in large numbers. He has sent a more recent photo of a male (below right) which you can see has a ‘bulge’ under segment 2 of the abdomen (absent in females) and no bulbous ovipositor present at the end of the abdomen. As I have returned from holiday it has (obviously!) got cooler with rain forecast and to date no other species have been recorded this year. It’s great however to see the season has got underway and keep me posted as there could be more ‘early records’ to come …
