Having started the butterfly thread and seeing other things on the wing I felt I ought to start something for odonata. I will have to see how many species there are though as my field guide is at work.

OK so I visited the british dragonfly society's excellent website http://www.dragonflysoc.org.uk/species.html

There are 22 damselflies and 34 dragonflies. One species is extinct (orange spotted emerald) following pollution of the stream where the one known colony was many years ago, leaving 55 species. I have been to the site looking at beetles but kept my eyes open anyway - no joy!

Anyway, like butterflies (and everything else) you would have to travel round most of the UK to see all of the species, so let's see how many of the 55 we can see between us. If you can get a grid reference you can also submit any records to BDS too.

So far this year I have seen 3 species.
The large red damselfly (1/55) - first to emerge and very common. I saw mine in the centre of town on a hedge.
Beautiful demoiselle (2/55)     - I saw this when I walked my butterfly transect, fluttering over the river. Demoiselles are easy to ID because they hold their wings closed above their body.
Scarce chaser (3/55) - formerly very rare, careful management has boosted numbers and they are spreading outwards from one of their main colonies along the River Stour, Dorset. I saw about 5 females today.

This post was last modified: 15-05-2008 07:26 PM by South Coast Ranger.

Timely thread. I've spent the past few days watching the emerging damsels in our garden. Yesterday was spectacular. We've only got a small pond but there were numerous azures and large-reds making good use of it. I spent several hours photographing them yesterday. A sample shot is attached.