After noting recently that the ‘rare’ Banded Demoiselle Damselfly is the emblem of the Mersey Vale Nature Park, it was still something of a surprise to see one today by the Bridgewater Canal.
According to Wikipedia it is “a large damselfly with a total length of up to 48 mm and a hind wing length of up to 36 mm. The male has translucent wings which each have a broad, dark iridescent blue-black spot (or band) across the outer part. On immature dragonflies the spot is dark brown. The body can be a metallic blue or blue-ish green.
Our very active specimen certainly fitted this description.
Sue, Dot and I had enjoyed a short stroll around Dunham Park, where the ‘fountain’ was conspicuous for its green-ness rather than for its fountain.
A large group of Fallow Deer bucks lazed near the entrance, seemingly weighed down by their new horns.
The house was still standing proud, with the coppiced trees that were bare a few weeks ago now looking like dark green lollipops.
After a tour of the grounds and a luxuriant coffee, we headed down to the Swan with Two Nicks and onto the canal towpath. The weed below – perhaps a Black Knapweed, was busy with insect life. Mark would probably identify the bee as a Red-tailed Bumble-bee, Bombus Lapidarius, but I can’t ‘sex’ it as I can’t see whether or not it has a collar!
Then we saw the Damselfly. Quite exciting really – we watched it for ages, though we failed to get the desired picture of it flying.
The images below were the best I could manage.
All in all, a very pleasant little excursion.
2 comments:
That pic of the damselfly taking off. (the one at the end of the post) Is fantastic.
That's a stunner isn't it. Great photos.
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