A walk round the pond - week 44

Back by popular demand (thanks Cherry and Julia), for one week only.  I had thought last week's post would be the last but for completeness I went to the pond again on 1st November.  It was sunny and calm but only 7℃.  Despite that I saw at least half a dozen male common darters and a couple of females.  The males were quite active, with a fair bit of aerial combat in between basking in the sunshine.

I will go again next week, but won't post again here unless there is something extraordinary.  Since the start of the season I have been collecting data for weekly reports to the British Dragonfly Society via iRecord.  It has been interesting to document the appearance of the various species.  As last year, there have been 15 species in all - 6 damselflies and 9 dragonflies.  With the exception of banded demoiselle, which I saw only once and which is a visitor from the nearby river, I think all are probably resident breeding species, although I have never seen juvenile or female black darters here.  This chart gives a summary of the appearance and flight season of all 15 species from week 18 to week 44.

If I do the same again next year it will be interesting to compare the results.  I will go again next week, and perhaps the week after, to document the end of the season.  After that it will be six months before I see a dragonfly again - and I expect it will be a large red damselfly in early May.