Monday 12 June 2023

Dancing Dainties in the Heat!!

With hot temperatures and a light wind forecast for the weekend, I thought I'd have another trip up to Oare Marshes to see if the Dainty Damselflies were out in better numbers. Arriving at 9:30am, I thought I was already late to the party as there were many paired damselflies already ovipositing in the breeding pool. A scan of them revealed many were Dainty Damselfly. In the next couple of hours before the heat finally beat me, I managed to see c70 Dainty Damselfly in a small area but this is probably a massive under estimate as there are many other pools and ditches which are on private land. There are likely to be a few hundred easily in this area. There were still a good number of damselflies watched emerging and a Cetti's Warbler was busily finding and removing them before they made their maiden flights. I spent some time walking through the grasses nearby where I managed to find a few male and female Dainty Damselfly which kept the camera busy for a while. Also seen in the area were c10 Scarce Emerald Damselfly which is encouraging and hopefully there are many more in the nearby ditches. There were a few Black tailed Skimmer and Four spotted Chaser flying around along with 1 Hairy Dragonfly and 1 Emperor Dragonfly noted. Just the odd Azure and Blue tailed Damselfly seen.  








Dainty Damselfly (Coenagrion scitulum) - male





Dainty Damselfly (Coenagrion scitulum) - female


Dainty Damselfly (Coenagrion scitulum) - male








Scarce Emerald Damselfly (Lestes dryas) - female

6 comments:

  1. Mooie foto's van de juffertjes.
    Allen mooi van kleur en scherpte.
    Groetjes Tinie

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  2. Very enviable sightings, Marc, with photos well up to your usual excellent standard.

    Best wishes - take good care - - - Richard

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  3. Beautiful Scarce Emerald Damselfly images Marc.

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    Replies
    1. Many thanks Bob. Can be tricky to catch up with as the name suggests. Take care.

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