Just when I was starting to wonder what was happening welcome news arrives from Roger Littleover that Common Club-tail Gomphus vulgatissimus has been seen over near Quatt. Roger’s photo below shows the stocky straight sided body of the female and the separated eyes which are characteristic of this species. Common Club-tail emerge on mass so now is the time to easily spot them before they disperse. Interestingly I just had word from the North Wales dragonfly county recorder that this species was also seen on 13th May on the River Dee near Holt (NE of Wrexham).
Warwick Davies has also been keeping an eye on things in the north west of Shropshire and reports a female Common Blue Damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum seen at Llynclys Quarry on 15th May:
Warwick has also seen a number of Large Red Damselflies Pyrrhosoma nymphula ‘hanging around in their overcoats!’ Hopefully it won’t be too long before we get a spell of convincing warm still weather, the overcoats are thrown off and we’re inundated with sightings. Banded Demoiselle has incidentally been sighted in North Wales so I would suspect this to be seen in Shropshire any day.