Latest Leics & Rutland Dragonfly Sightings

From Matt Cole:

I took the attached 2 photos last week at Lount - am I right in thinking these are of a female Common Hawker? The yellow costa seems to be the giveaway. I believe these are very scarce in Leicestershire though?

Correct, Matt, VERY scarce. There is only one previous Leicestershire & Rutland record that has been fully documented and accepted: a well-described specimen at Saltersford Valley, Oakthrope, on 17th August 2001. There have been other reports, but this is a difficult dragonfly to identify and mistaken identity has been suspected and indeed proven in the past. As far as I am aware, these are the first photos of a Common Hawker in the county... and wow, what photos! Congratulations Matt, a stunning find!

A couple of records from the last few weeks (apologies for the late posting, due to the website update):

From Andy Mackay:

Second-hand report, but probably reliable: a friend of Caroline Dudley (co-author of the new dragonfly book) saw a male Small Red-eyed Damselfly on Lagoon II some time over the weekend of the 18th-19th August (and photographed it apparently, but I haven't seen the photo).

There's also a photo of a Small Red-eyed at RW (doesn't say exactly where) on John Wright's blog, and I finally saw one there on August 25th.

From Dave Scott:

Newton Croft Farm Lake, Newton Harcourt 7th August:
Small Red-eyed Damselfly: 3 ovipositing pairs plus three males.
Good numbers of Red-eyed, Blue-tailed and Common Blue Damselflies, ovipositing Emperor, Black-tailed Skimmer and Common Darter

[ I am trying to fix a bug in the gallery using Internet Explorer which stacks the main links one on top of the other instead of side by side. I have no idea why it's doing this, why it's just the gallery, and why it's still fine in Firefox. I really hate computers sometimes! ]

As you will now see, the new LRDG Forum is up and running. It's quick and easy to sign up* - please take a look, sign up and start posting!

If you have any questions or problems using the forum, there is a very useful Help Section, and you can always post on the forum with your questions and comments. It's highly configurable for users - you have your own personal message centre, profile, etc.

I would like this to be the last post on the blog that isn't related to a sighting (apart from maybe the occassional major news item). I know I'm pretty much the only person who puts non-sightings here anyway, but I really want to draw attention to the forum and the ease at which everyone can share their views.

There's also the possibility that the forum could eventually take over the latest sightings if it proves more popular/usable than the blog.

The Forum has two sections so far - News and Announcements, and Dragonfly Chat (which is not a new species of bird!)

* At the moment I have it set to register anyone who goes through the signup process automatically, meaning you can sign up and post right away. This does open the forum to spammers to some extent. If it gets too much for the forum Moderators** to deal with, I'll change it so that new signups have to be validated by a Moderator before they can post.

** I'm also on the lookout for one or two regular visitors to this site who would be willing to join me as Moderators of the forum. All that means is that when browsing the forum, you'd have the ability to edit and delete "dodgy" posts, block spammers, ban users, etc, as and when these things are encountered. Please let me know if you would be willing to do this.

Plungar Bridge to Old Railway Bridge (Bridge 47A)


An increase in activity over recent weeks due to the warmer weather and sunshine. Damselfly numbers were very low but Hawkers and Darters were quite numerous.


Species present were:


Blue-tailed Damselfly


Common Blue Damselfly


Common Darter


Migrant Hawker (top right)


Southern Hawker (bottom right)


Brown Hawker

Sorry the update took so long and I hope you like the new-look website! As you will see it is far from complete at the moment but I'm working on it.

The two new features of most interest are the photo gallery and forum.

The photo gallery is very versatile and will allow those who want to sign up to add their own photos directly to the archive. New photos added to the gallery will appear in the Latest Photos section as well as the species category for that photo.

The forum is still in need of some TLC from me, but it is usable as from now. Both the gallery and the forum have to be signed up for, but it is a very simple process.

After giving the issue considerable thought, I have decided the best way for us to do this in the future is to have the blog (sightings) pages - ie: these pages - as purely for the latest sightings (and maybe brief messages about important news, such as this message) and have all other news and views in the forum, which is far better suited to discussion.

I will be contacting all our regular contributors with more info about contributing to the gallery and forum in due course. If you are not yet a contributor but would like to be, please contact Richard Fray.

And feel free to let me know what you think of the update, and what can be done to improve the website.

Cheers!

From the Wildlife Books website:

"Watching British Dragonflies" by Steve Dudley, Caroline Dudley and Andy Mackay:

THIS TITLE WILL BE LAUNCHED AT THE RUTLAND BIRDFAIR ON FRIDAY 17th AUGUST 2007. PRE PUBLICATION PRICE OF 24.50 VALID UNTIL 19th AUGUST 2007

This book seems sure to become an important resource for UK odonata enthusiasts. Click here for more details and here to pre-order.

Labels: news

This nature reserve includes a variety of habitats including grassland, woodland and section of the Oakham Canal. Location is SK 831174



Species seen include:



Southern Hawker (illustrated right)

Brown Hawker

Ruddy Darter

Common Darter

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Common Blue Damselfly



The Brown Hawkers were doing a superb impression of Barn Owls by quartering the grassland adjacent to the railway line.

In a few days I will be removing the current website and uploading a new one - this process may take a few days to complete so don't be surprised if you see a holding page where the website should be. Also, please be aware that many of the pages will change to a new format so pevious bookmarks may not work. Simply go to the new home page, which will still be www.lrdg.org.uk, and navigate from there.

There will be a host of exciting new features, but you'll have to wait and see what they are!

Plungar: Wide stretch of water 200 metres west of Old Railway Bridge (Bridge 47A) SK 762336

6 Small Red-eyed Damselflies including a pair ovipositing

This is a first for me along this stretch of the Grantham Canal. The only other site on the canal at which I have observed Small Red-eyes is at Wild's Bridge, between Owthorpe and Kinoulton in Nottinghamshire. A small number of males were present there this morning.

Also present :

Common Blue Damselfly including pairs ovipositing
Blue-tailed Damselfly including females ovipositing
Brown Hawker