New Forest, Dragons & Damsels

A short break for Lisa and me in the New Forest last weekend saw me eagerly trying to find sites for all the rare and local insects and plants but just nowhere near enough time to do the place any justice. However I did manage to spend a fantastic few hours at a site near Crockford Bridge specifically for southern damselfly but there was just so much else on the wing, it was fantastic. The weather couldn’t have been that much better either, lovely and hot.

The heath was alive with silver-studded blues and we caught this couple upto a bit of mischief.
 

In the heat the butterflies were extremely active and it was a job to get a shot of one at rest, but finally…

The dragon and damselflies were just amazing though, with the following highlights:

A new species for me was this small red damselfly with attached female.

Large red damselflies also occur at the site but are easy to tell apart from the smalls, at least in the males, with their black abdomen markings.

 

Another new species and a speciality of the site is southern damselfly and I managed to find this pair mating, with the male clasped onto the female.



The beautiful demoiselle was also present along the stream in good numbers, what a cracker.


Then a very nice chap asked me if I was interested in dragonflies and directed me to a pair of golden-ringed dragonflies that were in a mating wheel. Just superb.

We then went for a walk in a nearby piece of woodland and clocled up a few butterflies, namely silver-washed fritillary, large skipper, small skipper and marbled white.

Then tried a site called Latchmore Brook for scarce blue-tailed damselfly but couldn’t find any in the time remaining. All in all though a grand day out with my camera.