End of year favourites - Dragonflies

I don't take as many dragonfly and damselfly photos as I used to, mainly taking record shots for recording, but I am always on the lookout for something attractive or unusual.  The weather in 2025 was really good for dragonflies and locally and nationally it was a bumper year.

My first dragonfly of the year, and the first record in Gosforth Nature Reserve, was an immature male Broad-bodied Chaser.

Then my new meadow pond produced three Broad-bodied Chasers.  I watched them emerge and fly away but didn't see them again.  The pond has produced damselflies in the past couple of years but these were the first dragonflies.

Another early season species, and a first for me, was a male Hairy Dragonfly at RSPB Old Moor in Yorkshire.

A couple of species had a notably good year in my local Gosforth Nature Reserve.  Brown Hawker has only been recorded once before (in 2021), as far as I am aware, but this year we saw patrolling males and ovipositing females over several weeks so there is a good chance it will become established.

Black-tailed Skimmer also had only occasional previous records in the reserve but this summer there were many basking males and an ovipositing female (which I didn't see).  Again there are high hopes this may become a regular resident species.

I have the privilege of counting dragonflies on the Hepple Estate in Northumberland.  It is a reliable place to see Golden-ringed Dragonflies, males easier to photograph than females.

I also see male Emperor Dragonflies there but this was the first time I have managed a decent photo.

Finally back to Gosforth Nature Reserve where I saw my first Willow Emerald Damselfly in September.  It is the most northerly site for this species which first arrived in East Anglia less than 20 years ago.

Dragonflies and damselflies are responding rapidly to climate change so we are likely to see more species arriving and becoming established in the North East in coming years.