I had my first damsel flies of the year yesterday. Red with a little green bit on it's tail.

Don't know that one!

I have just bought one of those fold out identification cards for damsel and dragonflies. £3.50 well spent I hope.
Saw a "large red" damselfly on the pond today.

Our large local library closed 14 months ago for a refurbishment that no one wanted. They had a massive book sale and I picked up a dragonfly/damselfly hardback for 50p and I also have the Collins Complete British Insects book which has good pics. Must admit though, that it must be much easier if they are all on one page. Are all the species on there? If so, where did you buy it?

I've had a pair of the small red and also a large one has visited a couple of times. My Hornwort is spreading like crazy at present and I'm thinning it out to give to someone else. It's such a shame that a lot of the damselfly eggs will go with it!

We went to our local RSPB reserve at Fairburn Ings yesterday and was lucky enough to see quite a lot of damselflies and some Dragonflies. One particular one rested on a branch leaning out of the pond. It was a new area that had been made into a pond the previous summer but already it was heaving with creatures and one of the dragonflies only had three wings but seemed to be as agile as the others.
For the first time in our own pond we had three damselflies so that was very exciting. They were mating and did alight down into the plants so maybe they were successful and we will have a good result.

Here is a link that might be useful: Alisons pond and garden

Sonny has taken some photo's of the dragonflies that we saw at Fairburn Ings and they are posted onto his gallery which if anyone wants to see are linked below. They are under the july month.
Alison

Here is a link that might be useful: Sonny's photo's

Well the link didn't work for me just then so try this instead. It will take you to the website and then you can link from there into gallery 2008.
Alison

Here is a link that might be useful: alisons nature reserve

Hi Alison,

I haven't yet made it to any large nature reserves and I'm jealous of your visit!

I'm having a battle in my mind as to how much plant cover I should have in my pond. There's a hungry Heron in the park a short distance away and he eats every fish in sight. He also robbed a friend's pond which is only a short walk away from where I live. I know they say 50% of the water surface should be covered, but I don't want the Heron to discover my pond, yet I want passing Dragonflies to find it! I still haven't seen a Dragonfly yet this year and I don't know if that's because of the lousy, non-flying weather or whether it's because they can't see my pond because I have a lot of plant cover.

I saw Sonny's great photos on your website. Great detail.
Big Kid

Hi,

really poor year for dragonflies here--have the damselfies and the demisoiles, but have not seen the usual emperors and chasers. Only two large 'exo-skeletonny things), and they were floating in the pond so useless to bring into work to freak people out? Is it too wet?

I'll ask the hubby about cameras...

Chip

Still haven't seen one dragonfly in my garden this year.

Yesterday we went to a lovely place called Janets foss near Malham in the Yorkshire Dales. It is a lovely woodland dell with a beautiful waterfall leading into a small pool which leads off into a stream where the legend is that Janet or Janeet Queen of the faries lived behind the waterfall. The children love it there and they think that the water is magical so that when they touch it they get a wish granted. As we were walking by the stream beyond the waterfall we saw a dragonfly zigzaging across the water catching flies. I bet the flies didn't know what hit them as they were in a small group but the dragonfly kept turning about and soon there was none left.

Sounds magical!