June Updates

What with being away in Italy for the first half of June and my internet access since then being very hit and miss [putting it mildly]I thought I'd leave it til the end of the month to let you know what's been happening. New species seen for the year, this month, include Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly [Ischnura pumilio]At both ends of the county in New Forest VC8 and CWP [Paul Winter and Gareth Harris respectively]. Also seen by Paul in the New Forest were Keeled Skimmer, Emerald Damselfly and Common Darter on 8th/11th June. Jonathan Parkhouse, who has fairly recently moved to Box, discovered several semi-mature Scarce Chasers on the Bybrook near his house on 22nd June.He managed to get a cracking trio of shots!

Also Phil Smith reported Scarce Chasers still present at the Caen Hill Locks on K & A canal at Devizes - having territorial fights with Black-tailed Skimmers! Lorraine Blakey has refound Bt Skimmers at Langford Lakes this year and got a cracking shot of a mating pair!

David Rear has found Beautiful Demoiselle at two new locations in SW Wilts; on the Ansty Stream and Oddford Brook near Tisbury. I also found them at a new location in the North. In the Winter I visited a location near Marshfield which has the Broadmead Brook running through it. I went to see the rare migrant bird, Red-flanked Bluetail! It's on the edge of the Cotswolds limestone and I thought at the time the stream looked perfect C. virgo territory. So I went back last week....and in a 1km stretch found 18 males and 5 females!! I love it when a plan comes together ;o) Also there were Banded Demoiselles, Blue-tailed and Large Red damsels; and a single male Broad-bodied Chaser.

I was particularly pleased to get the shot of the female showing her 'I want to be alone' wing signal! It must have worked as all males that approached then veered off when they saw her hold her wings out flat!
New recorders, Judy and Richard Gosnell from Royal Wootton Bassett,  found a male BBC on the Wilts & Berks canal at Chaddington Lock near RWB so hopefully they will provide more coverage in future from this under watched area - many thanks to you both.
Finally, I paid a visit to Roves Farm on 26th to [successfully] check if Ruddy Darter (Sympetrum sanguineum) had appeared at the scrape there yet. I saw one mature male and several immatures - but only one of the immatures would allow close approach for photos!

Also present among the reeds were several Emerald Damselflies (Lestes sponsa) including this immature female.

If further new species found during June come to light I'll add them later.
July should see the rest of the regular species start to appear....