Hampshire dragonflies (3 Viewers)

[pdwinter]

Cadnam Common 25/04

Another good day with species new for the year in bold.
Blue-tailed Damselfly 1
Large Red Damselfly c.50
Downy Emerald 1
Four-spotted Chaser 5 (1 ovipositing female)
Broad-bodied Chaser 28 (4 ovipositing females)

These were my earliest dates ever for Down and 4-spot:t:

Don't know about you John but I reckon we might as well give up on this and the Hampshire bird thread !

 

[pdwinter]

Pennington 29/4

Despite the windy and overcast conditions I saw

Beautiful Demoiselle 1 (imm m)
Blue-tailed Damselfly 12
Common Blue Damselfly 1
Azure Damselfly 11
Red-eyed Damselfly 11
Large Red Damselfly 11
Hairy Dragonfly 3 (2m, 1f)
Broad-bodied Chaser 1

On 27th there was an imm male Beautiful Demoiselle along the Test Way north of Nursling Church.

Also on 29th Simon King saw a Scarce Chaser at Lower Test.

 

[s1ni5t3r]

Try this link for IDing blues

http://www.norfolkdragons.co.uk/species/idblues.shtml

(It doesn't have Southern though just Azure, Common and Variable.)

Be aware that Variable is named that for a reason.
The anti humeral stripes can be nearly as wide as Common blue or entirely absent or anywhere in between.
The marking on segment 2 is always(?) Y shaped not U shaped but the stem can be very thin and with the wings folded over it can be difficult to see.

I hope that has helped confuse matters for everyone.

 

[pdwinter]

Be aware that Variable is named that for a reason.
The anti humeral stripes can be nearly as wide as Common blue or entirely absent or anywhere in between.
The marking on segment 2 is always(?) Y shaped not U shaped but the stem can be very thin and with the wings folded over it can be difficult to see.

I hope that has helped confuse matters for everyone.

A page I put together some time after Tom's post was

sites.google.com/site/localpatch/hampshire-dragonflies/blue-damselfly-id

with the attached pic of 3 male Variables I saw near Reading last year.

I live in hope that Variable will re-appear in the Sowley Pond area of Hants - I always check every blue damsel just in case. Perhaps it will become clearer after the Atlas is published.

Cheers

 

[John P]

Don't know about you John but I reckon we might as well give up on this and the Hampshire bird thread !

I've thought that a few times, I struggle to understand the difference between Hampshire and (say) Norfolk birders, the Norfolk thread on this forum is massive and receives several posts every day, Hampshire by comparison is virtually moribund.

Not really looking too hard for Dragons yet, a quick trip to Little Hatchet on Thursday pm produced only Large Reds and not the anticipated Hairys and Downy Emeralds.

Another speculative trip to a new pond (SU189007) gave me just one brief view of one BBC.

 

[pdwinter]

Another speculative trip to a new pond (SU189007) gave me just one brief view of one BBC.

Hi John

I've got some old DRN data and this pond (called Dur Hill Pond in DRN) has records from 1983 with the following species recorded -
Beautiful Demoiselle
Emerald Damselfly
Blue-tailed Damselfly
Common Blue Damselfly
Azure Damselfly
Large Red Damselfly
Southern Hawker
Emperor Dragonfly
Golden-ringed Dragonfly
Four-spotted Chaser
Broad-bodied Chaser
Keeled Skimmer
Common Darter

Paul

 

[John P]

Southern Damselfly in Holmsley Inclosure on Saturday.(@ SZ219998)

 

[pdwinter]

Nice find, John. Never been to the area but I see there are some records from Stony Moor to the west of the Inclosure.