A Day of Watching Willows

With Yesterday (Monday) forecast for very warm temperatures and light winds, I spend about 5 hours at Nethergong walking around the site making a count of the Willow Emerald Damselflies. I spent the first few hours having a steady walk around where I was able to take a number of photos before I put the camera away and put all my attention into counting. It was interesting whilst walking through the small wood mid morning that all I could find were female Willow Emerald Damselflies. Not a male in sight! I assume that they move away from the water late afternoon after egg laying for a break and then around late morning the following day, make their way back to the water where the males must be waiting. When I walked back through the wood mid afternoon to check, most females had indeed disappeared from what I could see with only the odd one present. Around 1pm I started a three hour search of the whole site and managed to find an excellent 320 Willow Emerald Damselfly. It was great standing at the stream watching as pair after pair in tandem made their way to the various overhanging trees, brambles and stinging nettles in which to egg lay. I spent quite a while at a couple of trees where I counted at least 30 pairs in one tree and 15 pairs in another ovipositing, quite a sight I can assure you. I'm pretty sure there were others in the area that I missed but the species seems to be continuing to do very well here. Other species seen included 1 Emperor Dragonfly, 1 Southern Hawker, 4 Brown Hawker, c10 Migrant Hawker, 5 Emerald Damselfly and good numbers of Common and Ruddy Darter. There was no sign of the Southern Migrant Hawker which was still present Sunday morning so I assume it has moved on. An excellent session with plenty to see as ever at this fantastic private site and I'm sure I'll be back in the next few days to study and photograph the Willow Emerald Damselflies.

 

Willow Emerald Damselfly (Chalcolestes viridis) - female

 

Willow Emerald Damselfly (Chalcolestes viridis) - male