Thursday 7 January 2010

A New Year - and what global warming?!!


Firstly, just to recap on last year; 25 species were seen [in order of first sighting]:
Large Red Damselfly
Blue-tailed Damselfly
Common Club-tail
Beautiful Demoiselle
Scarce Chaser
Broad-bodied Chaser
Common Blue Damselfly
Azure Damselfly
4-spotted Chaser
White-legged Damselfly
Banded Demoiselle
Golden-ringed Dragonfly
Black-tailed Skimmer
Emperor
Red-eyed Damselfly
Downy Emerald
Southern Hawker
Brown Hawker
Ruddy Darter
Migrant Hawker
Common Darter
Small Red-eyed Damselfly
Common Emerald Damselfly
Small Red Damselfly
Keeled Skimmer.
The interesting thing to be discovered this year is whether the weather we are currently experiencing will have any adverse effect on our odonata fauna. Most species have adapted long ago to the prolonged cold and snow we are having - it is us who have short memories and forget this used to be the 'norm' not many years ago!
It is how the more recent colonisers will respond which will be facinating to find out.
This year is the International Year of Biodiversity and I am hoping to organise some guided dragonfly walks across Wiltshire to showcase how comparatively rich we are [within a UK context] in odonata. Once I have dates/venues confirmed I will post them here. First provisional date may be May 22nd at Lower Moor Farm. I hope it will look a little different then to how it looks now [see above]!!
A Happy, Healthy and Peaceful New Year to you all:o))