Wandering down to East Lock

As I got down to the Environment Agency's "Wildflower sowing patch" by East Lock the area looked to be better for damselflies than the whole of the rest of the walk so far.

The first one identified was the blue homochrome form of the Azure Damselfly, Coenagrion puella, with this one having a moderate amount of blue on its abdomen. This could be compared with a darker variant that I have also seen. The thorax is still green. Less than 10% of the females are reputed to be the blue "homochrome" form, while over 90% are supposed to be the typical female "heterochrome" form (no reference).

I was pleased to see the White-legged Damselflies, Platycnemis pennipes, here as I don't recall them from previous years. Here is an immature female, known as the "lactea" phase. Note the buffy pterostigmas. The second photo might be of a different animal, I'm not sure.

and here is the male,

Damselflies at Grove Ferry, Stodmarsh

My first sightings of the Variable Damselfly were an absolute delight!

This is a female dark form, showing the typical light almost white markings on the thorax, the white bands on the legs, the light bar between the eyes and the thistle mark on S2, but coupled with the almost entirely black markings along S3 to S9.

Barden Lake

Slow ramble around Barden Lake looking for birds, especially yearlings birds, and dragonflies.

The pair of Swans still had their seven cygnets, safe so far from pike and other predators.

Interesting link to a Guardian article on the species expansion. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/25/specieswatch-egyptian-goose-breeding-population

I think this is the closest I have ever actually been to a Red-eyed Damselfly, come to the shore in order to find a place to mate or lay eggs perhaps. I hadn't realised how fuzzy their thoraxes are! There is no sign of any ante-humeral stripes on the males of the Red-Eyed Damselfly, a useful separation feature. 

The male is in reasonable focus here.

This picture brings the female into focus a little better, noting the broken lines of the ante-humeral stripes, forming "exclamation marks", another useful separation feature, parallel to that for the male above.

I found one pair of White Legged Damselfly on the edge of the shallows.

Access Trail

A nice walk down the section of the Access Trail from the Victoria Road lay-by, focusing mainly on insects. I saw quite a few Azure Damselflies along the sunnier parts of the trail.

This is a male Azure Damselfly, Coenagrion puella.

This next male with a dip in its abdomen, is munching away on an aphid. Nice view of the beerglass on S2.

And here is a closer-up view, interesting to see how the pronotum is angled upwards.

This next picture is a female, a common dark variation on the blue homochromic form. The colours on the top of the head and thorax seem fairly pale - recently hatched perhaps?