During my bioblitz I noticed a couple of types of damselfly in my garden – strangely none emerging from the pond. I’d also noticed some at the Country Park during Tern watch. I shouldn’t really have been surprised when I found some during my lunchtime sojourn to the River Nene. I did notice quite a few darting about, thin electric blue insects, nervously settling, but moving as soon as I made even the slightest move in their direction. I gave up trying to photograph them, they weren’t playing. So I wandered off to look for hoverflies and warblers.
It was then that I spotted the demoiselle – the most beautiful insect created. If you have no idea what I’m talking about then Google it. I couldn’t take a photograph because it was off in the reed beds, but I did look at it through my binoculars. They are breathtakingly lovely.
Whilst I was making my way back looking for bees and bugs I stumbled across some mating damselflies – I almost missed them. They were sufficiently distracted to stay still long enough for a photo.
I then found a female ovipositing on a leaf further along the path. She was also obliging to a would-be insect identifier.
I thought that these were probably the same as the other blue damsels I had seen, but when I got out my excellent field guide I discovered these were blue-tailed damselflies. Just as common as the azure and blue-tailed varieties, not as beautiful as the demoiselle, but they are the only ones I caught on camera and properly ID’d today!