• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

UK dragonfly & damselfly sightings 2020 (1 Viewer)

another ruddy darter near my home in Surrey. Unusually, I seem to be seeing more ruddy than common darters so far this year.
 

Attachments

  • ruddy darter ex IMG_2291.JPG
    ruddy darter ex IMG_2291.JPG
    313.4 KB · Views: 20
  • ruddy darter ex IMG_2290.JPG
    ruddy darter ex IMG_2290.JPG
    258.5 KB · Views: 14
News on the BDS sightings page - the ditch in Canvey Island which had a Southern Emerald damsel sighting a couple of years ago had a report of 7 immatures on 3 July. They were reported to be low down in a hedge near the ditch, which fits with reports from other sites of what sort of habitat they like to hang out between emerging and breeding. The key thing about this site is there's access on a public right of way, in contrast to this species' annoying habit of breeding on inaccessible private land. The site is also reported to be crawling with Southern Migrant Hawker and Scarce Emerald.

If interested, have a look at this thread from 2018 about Canvey Island and you'll find all the details.
 
Just perusing the Latest Sightings on the British Dragonfly Society page when I noticed a claim of a female Yellow-winged Darter rescued from blanketweed in a water filled planter in Redbridge, London.

I've noticed in the last couple of years some clearly inaccurate reports & wonder if anybody knows anything about this record?

I'm rather sceptical!
 
Just perusing the Latest Sightings on the British Dragonfly Society page when I noticed a claim of a female Yellow-winged Darter rescued from blanketweed in a water filled planter in Redbridge, London.

I've noticed in the last couple of years some clearly inaccurate reports & wonder if anybody knows anything about this record?

I'm rather sceptical!

Through the iRecord verification I received a Southampton record of Vagrant Darter on 13th July - with pictures of a teneral female Common Darter - which I was able to re-determine.

On the BDS website there was a record of Golden-ringed Dragonfly in an Oxfordshire garden on 3rd May - there was a link to a Flickr pic of a Common Clubtail which is not a bad garden tick! However, the GR record was mentioned in the "British Wildlife" dragonfly round-up.

I'm pretty sure the BDS doesn't have the resources to check through the sightings that get put on the latest sightings on their website - best viewed as a vehicle to encourage interaction and interest in dragonflies but not a scientific record :)
 
Just perusing the Latest Sightings on the British Dragonfly Society page when I noticed a claim of a female Yellow-winged Darter rescued from blanketweed in a water filled planter in Redbridge, London.

I've noticed in the last couple of years some clearly inaccurate reports & wonder if anybody knows anything about this record?

I'm rather sceptical!

I wondered what that was really. Brown Hawker? Teneral Darter spp?
 
I wondered what that was really. Brown Hawker? Teneral Darter spp?

Every photo I've seen on the internet of a yellow-winged darter in the UK over the last few years has been one of the other darter species, usually common but occasionally red-veined. Which doesn't constitute proof, of course, but a fresh common darter would have to be the most likely.
 
I wondered what that was really. Brown Hawker? Teneral Darter spp?

I find people are about as good at pattern matching dragonflies as I am at matching diptera - almost 100% failure rate :)

I saw the attached message on the local birding system - the observer didn't have the background knowledge that Willow Emeralds don't fly until July nor that it would be a first for VC11. I didn't bother to pursue it but I thought that female Banded Demoiselle would have been the most likely. (Not knocking the observer)
 

Attachments

  • sighting.JPG
    sighting.JPG
    13.8 KB · Views: 27
I'm pretty sure the BDS doesn't have the resources to check through the sightings that get put on the latest sightings on their website - best viewed as a vehicle to encourage interaction and interest in dragonflies but not a scientific record :)

Yes, I'm sure this has always been the case, but especially in recent years the function of the page seems to have changed somewhat.

My guess is that the dragonfly might have been an immature Ruddy Darter - people can be surprised by how much yellow there is in the wings of certain individuals. I've nearly made the mistake myself in my younger days |=)|
 
I find people are about as good at pattern matching dragonflies as I am at matching diptera - almost 100% failure rate :)

I saw the attached message on the local birding system - the observer didn't have the background knowledge that Willow Emeralds don't fly until July nor that it would be a first for VC11. I didn't bother to pursue it but I thought that female Banded Demoiselle would have been the most likely. (Not knocking the observer)
I was about to say that a lot of things had been early this year, but then I checked back and saw the date was in May. Not that early ;)

Fairly amazed no record of Willow Em in VC11. We’ve had them in Beds for several years - thought they’d got all over by now, though I suppose they do have a more eastern distribution and Beds is (a bit) east compared to Hants. Edit: and of course they started out from Suffolk, and Beds is a lot nearer Suffolk.

The thing I find most frustrating about the new(ish) BDS reports format is not so much the ‘in my garden’ records, because it’s good to see people getting interested and involved, but that when you reload the site, though the records are in date order, often within date they seem to come up in completely random order, which means you need to check through a few records to see if there’s anything new, and if you find one new record you have to keep looking to make sure there are no more. Their database needs a timestamp for date and time posted as well as a date-of-record date, and then for records to be displayed in date-of-record followed by time-posted so that once you start seeing stuff you’ve seen before you only need to look for the next date-of-record.

Hope that’s clear, it probably isn’t ;)

In any event, it’s still a useful site for checking what’s flying and where.
 
Last edited:
Fairly amazed no record of Willow Em in VC11. We’ve had them in Beds for several years - thought they’d got all over by now, though I suppose they do have a more eastern distribution and Beds is (a bit) east compared to Hants. Edit: and of course they started out from Suffolk, and Beds is a lot nearer Suffolk.

Willow Emerald was found in North Hampshire (Bramshill) last October and has got as far west as Knepp in West Sussex this year so VC11 will be any week now!

The thing I find most frustrating about the new(ish) BDS reports format is not so much the ‘in my garden’ records, because it’s good to see people getting interested and involved, but that when you reload the site, though the records are in date order, often within date they seem to come up in completely random order, which means you need to check through a few records to see if there’s anything new, and if you find one new record you have to keep looking to make sure there are no more. Their database needs a timestamp for date and time posted as well as a date-of-record date, and then for records to be displayed in date-of-record followed by time-posted so that once you start seeing stuff you’ve seen before you only need to look for the next date-of-record.

Hope that’s clear, it probably isn’t ;)

In any event, it’s still a useful site for checking what’s flying and where.

Yes - the ability for the end-user to decide if they want to see by date added or be date recorded would be good.

I tend to use iRecord now to see what's flying - once you have an account (free) it's pretty straightforward to set up queries ("Filters") to see what's flying, limited by area if needed.
 
Willow Emerald is already on the wing in Beds. I photographed one on the 11th at Duck End N.R (Dave knows where that is). This is nearly a month earlier than the first one I saw last year. It's been cloudy and cool since then so I haven't had a chance to check other local sites where I know it occurs.
Tim
 
This is for anybody thinking of visiting the Southern Emerald Damselfly site near Beaconsfield, Bucks - don't bother. Apparently the pond liner was removed last year and now the pond is virtually sterile.
 
Southern Migrant Hawker Aeshna affinis at Emer Bog (Hants) yesterday 10.08.20 but unfortunately no sign today between 10am and 5pm.
 

Attachments

  • 600D_38152.jpg
    600D_38152.jpg
    143.3 KB · Views: 18
Beautiful Demoiselle

Out recently, in N Cornwall, when I spotted this beautiful, but as it turned out, quite expensive, damselfly.
The BD is one I have never spotted before but always hoped to.
It was hawking from an exposed root on the otherside of the small river. So there I was, perched right on the bank, leaning out as far as I dared, with the camera held out even further. Got this shot in the bag, when my foot slipped, dumping me and camera into 18" water.
Result - 1 photograph, one ruined camera and 1 very wet me.

I think it was worth it.3:)

Fof

https://i.ibb.co/fC2pW0s/Calopteryx-virgo-Beautiful-Demoiselle-01-M.jpg
 
1m and a conjoined pair of Lesser Emperors at Deep Lake in Chichester Gravel Pits today - first I've ever seen here! In the SE of the lake easily viewable from main footpath. Also c50 Small Red-eyed Damsels mating away in a mass damsel orgy and 2 Brown Hawkers too. Nice!

_X0A8100 (Large).JPG _X0A8069 (Large).jpg
 
1m and a conjoined pair of Lesser Emperors at Deep Lake in Chichester Gravel Pits today - first I've ever seen here! In the SE of the lake easily viewable from main footpath. Also c50 Small Red-eyed Damsels mating away in a mass damsel orgy and 2 Brown Hawkers too. Nice!

View attachment 734273 View attachment 734274

Very nice. There seem to be good numbers around at the moment. A couple in the London area over the last couple of days with males seen at Walthamstow Wetlands & the London Wetland Centre.

By contrast we've not had a single Red-veined Darter sighting yet this year which seems to reflect a rather poor showing nationally. Saw some figures yesterday which showed numbers in the Netherlands low in comparison to the bumper numbers last year.

As we also had a record year last year I would have expected more home grown specimens, especially during the perfect conditions we had in May. Recent weather too should have been conducive to further immigration but only small numbers noted, mainly in Cornwall.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 4 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top