It turns out the 18th May was a wonderful Wednesday for dragonflies with 4 (possibly 5) more species on the wing. Jim Almond reported seeing the first Red-eyed and Common Blue Damselflies and Stephen Barlow sent in a lovely photo of the latter (pictured left). This is a teneral male and if you look closely you can see the blue colour starting to develop. Stephen also saw the first White-legged Damselflies on Marlot allotment at Whixall Moss (far below left) along with Beautiful and Banded Demoiselles. The pictures below show a female Banded Demoiselle left and a female Beautiful Demoiselle right. These are tricky to tell apart but with this direct comparison you can see the female Beautiful Demoiselle has broader browner wings and the female Banded has narrower greener wings.
Elsewhere reports of Common Clubtail are coming in and now is the hour! I saw 6 exuviae in Shrewsbury in the Quarry Park in the first minute of looking.
oh…and the possible 5th species was a potential sighting of Hairy Dragonfly at Whixall Moss – unconfirmed but a great reminder to keep an eye out for these early hawkers!
