30 April, 2009

Damselflies in the Garden

Due to the last couple of very sunny days, the garden has been visited by many species of bugs and bees, but I was particularly impressed to see a Large Red Damselfly resting on a flower earlier today.
This is the earliest damselfly to appear on the scene; on the wing from April through to June and July. Even though it is widespread and relatively common, this species is beginning to decline in certain parts of the country, namely Northhamptonshire.

I took this shot as it fed from our garden's Euporbia...



Large Red Damselfly (both pictures)
The garden Euporbia is another wildlife gardeners must have plant- I don't think there has ever been a time when I haven't look at this plant and not seen some form of wildlife on it, whether it be a Crab Spider or Mining Bee or a Green veined White butterfly.
Back to the subject of Damselflies, the garden was also visited by a White legged Damselfly a couple of days ago. It seemed a bit washed out at the time, maybe it had just emerged...

White Legged Damselfly
Crab Spider- Regular viewers will notice I've finally managed to get a shot of our resident catching a hoverfly... yey!

3 comments:

Fiona Barclay said...

That's lovely Billy - what a treat! I plan to do some damsel filming tomorrow - and trying for Emperors (moths) at Chobham.

Midmarsh John said...

Lovely shots of the Large Red Damselfly. Never seen one of those here in Lincolnshire. Haven't seen any yet but they usually come to my pond later in the year.

Billy Dykes said...

Birdguides- Thanks! I hope your damselfly fly filming went well the other day.

John- Thanks, John. You guys in Lincolnshire probably get many more damselflies than us in Surrey! ;)