Mark Underwood has been monitoring Pole Cottage Pools on the Longmynd and reporting there are barely any pools left at all. Despite a largely dried out habitat there were still a few individuals hawking over the puddles and Mark managed to capture these excellent flight shots of Common Hawker showing clearly the yellow costa, narrow antehumeral stripes and side stripes on the side of the thorax. Black Darter were also seen (below right) perched around the puddle edges! Surprisingly I’ve had no records yet this year for Keeled Skimmer or (lesss surprisingly) Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly and I fear the prolonged drought could well have a lot to do with it…
