8 species at Dearnford Lake

S. Barlow has been out and about at Dearnford Lake near Whitchurch and recorded 8 species on the wing. This is good to hear as apart from Whixall Moss there haven't been may species rich site records coming in and I'm often struggling to see more than 5 species on a given day at a given site. Stephen saw Common Blue, Azure and Blue-tailed Damselflies and the following dragonflies;

Four-spotted Chaser

Emperor - the male seen here showing the very distinctive black dorsal line running down the abdomen and the yellow costa (leading vein of the wings)

Black-tailed Skimmer

Southern Hawker showing the diagnostic continuous bands of colour toward the end of the abdomen

And Common Darter with the light stripe of colour on the legs and the antehumeral stripes (shoulder stripes) just visible. Interestingly no records have come in yet of Ruddy Darter which typically flies earlier in the season than Common Darter. Stephen recently saw this species just over the border in Cheshire, so it will be out and about just waiting for us to spot it.....