Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans) ♀.

Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans) ♀., originally uploaded by od0man.

I found my first Blue-tailed Damselfly today at the Semington Bypass balancing ponds just south of Melksham. I could only find the one which was an immature female of the C-type [as described in Dijkstra and Lewington].
This brings the tally to 2 species, but still no dragonflies yet even though 4-spot and Broad-bodied Chaser and Hairy Dragonfly have been seen in other counties!

Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) Female

Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) Female, originally uploaded by Rezamink.

Both Damian Pinguey and Rob Turner have now joined the exclusive club of 2010 odonata reporters ;o)
Rob found 3 tenerals at Swillbrook Lakes in the CWP today and Damians sighting was at the pond in Chippenham behind the Volvo garage. [Damians great shot illustrates this post].

Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) ♂.

Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) ♂., originally uploaded by od0man.

Hot on the heels of Wayne Clinch's first county sighting for the year of an odonata in Swindon the other day, I found another Large Red Damselfly [my first for theyear]. This is the first odonata for South Wilts, VC8 as it was at the pond in Blackmoor Copse WWT reserve.

At Last!

The first odonata of the year in Wiltshire was reported today by Wayne Clinch. He found a teneral Large Red Damselfly on the North Wilts Canal at Mouldon Hill Country Park in Swindon. He also managed to photograph it for good measure!
If this warm spell continues [which it seems set to do for a few days at least] then more should be found at other sites around the county; with other species, hopefully, following hot on it's heels.