Damsels & Dragons

It has been a good year for Dragonflies in the Cholsey area so far, with 3 new species and another 1 that was a rare visitor. We also have the latest Odonata year record for Oxfordshire with a Common Darter out at Lollingdon on 20th November 2014.

If you are a regular here you will have read of the 2 new species found in the last week. Actually 3 have been found recently all at the same site.

Willow Emerald Damselfly and Small Red-eyed Damselfly. The former found by Alan Dawson and the latter by Michael Pocock.

A Small Red Damselfly had been found in July of this year at the same site by Roger Wyatt.  

All 3 found at Cholsey Meadows which is a relatively new habitat.

Of the other 1, Beautiful Demoiselle has become a regular in the last 2 years with regular summer records at several locations.

With climate change upon us there are a few other species that could well turn up soon? These are Southern Migrant Hawker, Yellow-winged Darter and Red-veined Darter to name a few. All have been recorded in Oxfordshire before.

Cholsey is not blessed with water bodies, however we have the Thames and Cholsey Marsh plus a myriad of brooks and ditches crisscrossing the parish and a few large ponds, a spring and the new gravel pits. These are all good habitats for a selection of Dragons.

In the past we had a sizable marshy/boggy area out beyond the Lees but this was drained in the late 60’s. So we have lost that environment and some species of Dragons that once were there.

For Oxfordshire Dragonfly information please visit Stephen Burch’s excellent site: Oxfordshire Dragonflies

Small Red Damsel courtesy Roger Wyatt (dated July 2021)

Willow Emerald Damsel courtesy Michael Pocock

Small Red-eyed Damsel courtesy Michael Pocock

Beautiful Demoiselle

Willow Emerald courtesy Alan

Have had to do some re-editing of the recent dragonfly posts as there was some inaccurate information. Totally my fault.