Broad-bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa).Teneral ♂.

Broad-bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa).Teneral ♂., originally uploaded by od0man.

My first of the year! Two males and a female by the Column Pool in Savernake Forest. Along with several mature Large Red Damselflies, including tandem pairs and ovipositing pairs.
This male was disturbed from marginal vegetation so this was probably his maiden flight! The exuvia was found nearby.

Broad Bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa) Female

Broad Bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa) Female, originally uploaded by Rezamink.

Image of said BB Chaser as promised. A lovely shot by Damian.

First dragonfly sighting of the year!

Damian Pinguey reported seeing a teneral Broad-bodied Chaser this afternoon - at Morgan's Hill Wilts Wildlife Trust's chalk downland reserve! I can only imagine there must be a water feature somewhere on the adjacent golf course from which it may have emerged! Pic to follow - hopefully.
If you've seen a dragonfly in the last few days to beat this sighting please let me know.

Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans) ♂

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

Tucked in amongst all those Common Blues was this surprise. Not only my second species for the year - but a mature individual too!!

Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) teneral male.

Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) teneral male., originally uploaded by od0man.

My first Odonate species of the year! At CWP 95. At least 50 were roosting in the scrub near the lake - varying from semi mature to very teneral.

Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) Teneral Male

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

Damian managed to get a shot of one the following day at the same site. Still not seen any yet - but then the weather is not conducive to insect hunting at the moment...!

The New Season is off to an early start!

Hi all.
First of all, apologies for lack of news during the latter part of last year - various reasons I won't bore you with! I hope to keep the blog more current this year.
Now for the good news - Damian Pinguey reported seeing a semi-mature Large Red Damselfly at the amenity pond in Chippenham on Friday 8th April. This pond is always a good bet to get early sightings of species. It's very shallow and so the water warms up quickly so speeding up larval development!
The other news is that I've 'adopted' a new recording system, developed by Adrian Bicker of the Dorset Dragonfly Group. This system is based online and uses Google maps, so making record input much easier. It also provides instant feedback to the recorder as, once you've entered a record, you can go back in in map mode and view your 'dot' on the map in relation to other records already entered. I hope those of you who send me records might like to use this system [called Living Record]. If so, let me know and I'll set you up with an account. I have entered over 900 records from previous years so far so you can see where more recording effort is required - we have only 2 more recording seasons before the Atlas needs to be produced!!
The weather is reverting back to the norm after today - lets hope the warm conditions will return soon...