Cooler temperatures today and cloudy at times which curbed a lot of activity at Bouldnor Forest ponds. Just a few of the common damselflies to be seen along with one or two teneral Common Darters. However the one damselfly of interest was this male Emerald Lestes sponsa observed in the larger of the now dry scrapes formerly used by Southern Emerald Damseldlies. No sign of the latter so far this season following no sightings of it last year.
In my first post of 2023 I mentioned that my garden pond had become clogged with vegetation leading to a substantial decline in dragonfly activity. Therefore over the winter I performed a clearout of plants and now the pond boasts open water with marginal reed,cotton grass and frogbit Hydrocharis morsus-ranae. The latter is much used by ovipositing damselflies and I have noted a lot of egg laying by Large Red and Azure Damselflies over the last few weeks.
For the first time in some years this male Broad-bodied Chaser took up station at the pond today and over the last fortnight I have recorded several female Chasers ovipositing into the open water.
With the settled and warm sunny weather due to continue for another week at least,the dragonflies at Bouldnor Forest today were out and about. The damselflies seen at the ponds included Azure,Large Red,and Blue-tailed while dragonflies were two male Four-spotted Chasers, Emperor Dragonflies,one of which was an ovipositing female, Broad-bodied Chasers,and several teneral Common Darters. Close by, along the forest tracks were two Southern Hawkers.
