Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum)

I don’t get many dragonflies in the garden, so it’s always good when one turns up. I’ve had Common Darter previously; but also only late in the year during October. We had our first real frost last night, but this species seems relatively hardy as it can be seen right through to December if the weather is mild. It frequents ponds, including small garden ones, but also often occurs quite far from water.

"Teneral" Damselfly

I photographed this very confiding damselfly at Coombe Hill Nature Reserve last week\thinking with its muted colouring it must be a female. But checking it out, I realised it’s too blue to be a female blue or azure damselfly, and also the body is too pale. This indicates that it is actually a newishly emerged damselfly. In this case I think it’s a male Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans). These damselflies take a day or two to develop their adult colour.

Pond Visitors

These are two insects that are found close to water, attracted to my new pond. Footballer hoverfly, so named due to its stripey football-kit colours lays its eggs in shallow pond margins. Large Red Damselfly is rarely found away from standing water, unlike some other damselflies. The latter, a new species for my garden, is one of the earliest dragonflies on the wing in Spring.

#167 Footballer Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus)

#754 Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula)

Azure Damselfly

I don’t get many dragonflies in the garden, so it’s always good to snap one - often a bit of a challenge using a phone. Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella) is not so heavily tied to water as most species, so turns up here from time to time. This one is catching some evening sun on my potato plants.

There’s also a Southern Hawker (Aeshna cyanea) zipping around the garden this evening; another of the more regular dragonflies I get. But there’s not much hope of capturing that on my phone.

Southern Hawker

This Southern Hawker was zipping around the garden before somehow getting nabbed by the cat, which is a pity. After a pretty poor year for dragonflies, I had this, a Common Darter and what was probably an Azure Damselfly all this week.

#261 Southern Hawker (Aeshna cyanea)

Beautiful Demoiselle

I saw this Beautiful Demoiselle, the first dragonfly of the year in the garden, then found it dead. Sadly I don’t get many dragonflies at all, and have only recorded 5 species to date. Wish I had space for a better pond.

#204 Beautiful Demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo)

Southern Hawker

This Southern Hawker (Aeshna cyanea, #261) was caught by the cat, but I think its wings were already damaged or not fully developed. I released it alive, and as it is beautiful and I don’t get many dragonflies, I hope it survives. This species does live in small garden ponds, but also flies quite far afield. It’s a common dragonfly in Southern & Central England & Wales.

Surprise Visitor

I don’t get many dragonflies in the garden, and so late in the season I wasn’t expecting any today; however this female Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) arrived for a while to soak up some October sunshine on the garden chairs. A very welcome new species for the list (#545); my 5th dragonfly species. Other than that there was still a single Red Admiral butterfly basking in the sun, and a good mixed flock of blue, great and long-tailed tits on the bird feeders.

#545 Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum)

Damselflies

Not having much of a pond, only a couple of basins, I don’t attract many dragonflies or other aquatic insects, so it was good to see my second (first this year) Blue-tailed Damselfly and also a Beautiful Demoiselle in the garden on consecutive days last week. The blue-tailed damselfly is one of the commonest species and can tolerate quite polluted water, the demoiselle is normally more of a riverside species but I did also have a couple of them in the garden last summer. In addition to these two species the only dragonflies I’ve seen are an Azure Damselfly back in May and a Southern Hawker that was around for a few days last July.

#158 Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans)

500 Species - Azure Damselfly

I was hoping to reach 500 with something special, so here we have a female Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella) that was hiding up in the flower bed this evening. In just short of a year I’m half way to reaching 1000 species. This is my first dragonfly in the garden this year, and my fourth species since I started the list. Azure Dragonfly is one of those dragonflies that’s often found away from water in hedges and woodland rides, and is probably the commonest of the blue damselflies in UK.

#500 Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella)