Sue and Martin in Mallorca 2019

Sue and Martin in Mallorca 2019
On the Archduke's Path in Mallorca

Saturday 7 August 2010

Monday 2 August 2010 – Dunham Massey and a Banded Demoiselle Damselfly

Banded Demoiselle Damselfly

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.

The fountain - not turned on

A large group of Fallow Deer bucks lazed near the entrance, seemingly weighed down by their new horns.

The boys hang out

The house was still standing proud, with the coppiced trees that were bare a few weeks ago now looking like dark green lollipops.

Dunham Massey House

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!

Bugs on Knapweed

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.

Banded Demoiselle Damselfly

Damselfly in flight All in all, a very pleasant little excursion.

2 comments:

AlanR said...

That pic of the damselfly taking off. (the one at the end of the post) Is fantastic.

Mark said...

That's a stunner isn't it. Great photos.