Dida Gardens:
Black-tailed Skimmer 1
Four-spotted Chaser 1
Private site in north of the town:
2 Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly (two aurantiaca females)
Ian Lewington
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Black-tailed Skimmer (c) Ian Lewington |
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Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly (c) Ian Lewington |
A blog for sightings of Dragonflies and Damselflies in Oxfordshire. To submit records and photos for posting, just email stephen_burchemail at yahoo.co.uk. Photos with resolutions up to 1600 pixels horizontally may be provided. These will be displayed at a resolution of 640 pixels but viewers can then click to see them at full resolution
Orchard Lake:
Four-spotted Chaser, 1
Hairy Dragonfly, at least 3
Downy Emerald , at least 3
Red-eyed Damselfly, 4+
Azure Damselfly, numerous, many ovipositing
Common Blue Damselfly, several
Thames Path near Orchard Lake
Banded Demoiselle Damselfly, numerous
Blue-tailed Damselfly, 3
Phil Cruse
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Four-spotted Chaser © Phil Cruse |
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Azure Damselflies © Phil Cruse |
Pond near northern entrance SU377860:
Large Red Damselfly 1
Azure Damselfly - c 10
Four-spotted Chaser 1 briefly
Stephen Burch
Thrupp and Orchard Lakes:
Downy Emerald 3 -Orchard Lake .
Four-spotted Chaser 1
Common Blue Damselflies (100s almost all teneral)
Azure Damselflies c. 40
Blue-tailed Damselfly - small numbers
Red-eyed Damselfly - small numbers
Large Red Damselfly 1
Brian Walker
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Downy Emerald © Brian Walker |
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Downy Emerald © Brian Walker |
15+ Banded Demoiselle
3 Large Red Damsels
15+ Red Eyed Damsels
30+ Common Blue Damsels
10+ Azure Damsels
1 Variable Damselfly (female blue form) Barton Pool
1 Four-Spotted Chaser
1 Clubtail at SU5133196959. Also 2 exuviae found on vegetation at edge of river SU5248596929.
5 Hairy Dragonflies ( 3 Barton pool, 1 Orchard Lake, 1 Bullfield Lake)
Wayne Bull
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Variable Damselfly (female blue form) (c) Wayne Bull |
Clubtail: 1 exuvia at bend in river about 200m west of railway bridge
Alan Holmes, per iRecord
Clubtail 9 exuviae 1 emergent, 3 emerging on reeds rest on parapet.
Alan Holmes, per iRecord
Clubtails: 2 emergents and 3 (separate) exuviae.
Stephen Harley, per iRecord
I am shocked and saddened to hear that Alan Dawson, who many of you may have known, died suddenly and unexpectedly just after Easter.
For several years now Alan was one of the most prolific contributors to this Blog with records and superb photos from the Cholsey area, especially Cholsey Meadows. I met him several times over the past few years and he was always full of enthusiasm. He really put Cholsey on the odonata map of Oxfordshire and was very adept at finding Clubtails at just this time of year along the Thames path at Cholsey, mostly between Ferry Lane downstream to the bridge.
Alan's sharp eyes and extensive time in the field led to many notable records from Cholsey Meadows and other nearby sites. These included a wandering Southern Migrant Hawker (once!) and more regular Small Red-eyed Damselflies, both Willow Emerald Damselfly and Emerald Damselfly as well as many more common species.
He will be sorely missed.
RIP Alan.
Stephen Burch
Pond near the northern entrance:
2+ Large Red Damselfly
1 blue damselfly sp.
Stephen Burch
8 Banded Demoiselle
20+ Common blue damsels
3 Azure damsels
4 Hairy dragonflies (2 orchard lake, 2 Barton pool)
1 Downy Emerald (Bullfield lake)
Wayne Bull
Clubtail, newly emerged male drying off in the sun from 10:30 to 11:06 at the usual hotspot
Banded Demoiselles along the Thames path
Pair of Large Red Damselflies in cop in the garden today, before the female (with male in tandem) began ovipositing in the pond. Also another teneral LRD and an immature female Broad-bodied Chaser.
David Hastings
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Large Red Damselflies © David Hastings |
Southern Damselfly : 1♂ (immature)
Broad-bodied Chaser : 1♀ (immature)
David Hastings
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Broad-bodied Chaser © David Hastings |
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Southern Damselfly © David Hastings |
2-5 adult Clubtails at SU602795 (about 200m upstream of the railway bridge). Also 2-5 larvae and 2-5 emergents reported! Emergence under the railway bridge also reported.
Banded Demoiselle
Steve Cham, Alan Holmes;, Jon Van Gowler, Nick Percival per iRecord
Cholsey Marsh
Banded Demoiselle : 3♂ 1♀
Aston Upthorpe Downs
Large Red Damselfly : 1♂ (immature).
David Hastings
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Banded Demoiselle © David Hastings |
A Large Red Damselfly sighting in my garden in the Jericho area of Oxford this afternoon.
My first odonate of the year today - a teneral Large Red Damselfly which had probably emerged from my garden pond in Aston, west Oxon.
David Hastings
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Large Red Damselfly © David Hastings |
Many thanks to David Hastings for drafting an entry for Whitecross Green Wood, one of the best sites for Odonata in the county.
To see this, click here.
Anyone else with further suggestions for sites to add?
Stephen Burch
I'm pleased to announce that information on four new sites in the Banbury area has recently been added to the Site information that can be found on the tabs near the top of this page (below the photo and bold text).
Thanks very much to Steve & Gill Holliday and Gareth Blockley for summarising so well their available information on these sites:
Lamb’s Pool and Woodford Bottom BBOWT reserve
Wroxton College Lakes
Clattercote Reservoir
Grimsbury Reservoir and Upper Cherwell Valley, Banbury
In addition to the above sites, the text for the other sites has been reviewed and updated where necessary.
Please let me know of any errors or omissions.
If anyone has a favourite site they would like to see included, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Not long to the start of the 2025 season now!
Stephen Burch
County Dragonfly Recorder for Oxfordshire
Here is a summary of the main Odonata highlights for 2024 for the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, which includes a large section of Vice County (VC) 22 (old Berks) to the south and a small section of VC24 to the north (Whitecross Green Wood).
The weather for the 2024 dragonfly season was generally disappointing for much of the time, with fine sunny days at a premium. Numbers of the commoner species appeared well down, but there were still some notable highlights for some of the rarer species.
Unlike its exceptional showing in 2023, 2024 was more average for Clubtail sightings, with 18 records between 9 May and 2 June. Most were from the traditional area of Cholsey and Goring, with a notable count of 11 exuviae from downstream of Gatehampton Railway Bridge. There were also reports from the upstream section of the Thames at Chimney Meadows, Shifford and Tadpole Bridge, where this species is seen less often.
Clubtail (c) Alan Dawson |
Variable Damselfly © Ian Lewington |
Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies were again reported from stormwater ponds at Longford Park, Banbury and Didcot (including a new pond to the north of the town). A single record from Grove, near Wantage belatedly came to light – a new location for this rare species.
Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly (aurantiaca female form) © Ian Lewington |
Emerald Damselfly records were similar to last year, with reports of small numbers from just nine sites scattered across the county, with the exception of high numbers found at a new pond in Whitecross Green Wood.
Emerald Damselfly [focus stacked] © Stephen Burch |
First Norfolk Hawker for Oxon © Jeremy Dexter |
Lesser Emperor at Tar Lakes © Stephen Burch |
Southern Migrant Hawker © Ian Lewington |
Small Red Damselfly © Wayne Bull |
A remarkable record of a Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly has belatedly come to light while I was looking through iRecord entries for VC22 (Berkshire) for last year. It was on 6 June 2024, from a location in Grove, near Wantage, given as SU398902.
[Note that Vice County 22 includes the large section of what has been Oxfordshire ever since the re-organisation of county boundaries in 1974 - everywhere to the right of the River Thames, looking downstream].
The photos (for one see below) appear to confirm the identity, and look as though they were taken in the observer's garden! Unfortunately there is no valid observer name nor contact details for this record.
If by any chance the observer reads this post, I'd be delighted to hear from him/her!
Grove is some distance from Didcot, the only other known location for this rare species in southern Oxfordshire, and even further from the other sites in Banbury.
In Oxon, this species is currently usually found only at stormwater ponds, so it is possible there is a breeding colony nearby, yet to be discovered. Something to bear in mind in June this year!
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Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly in Grove, 6 June 2024 |
Showing remarkable dedication, Deborah Dunn has now completed five years of daily monitoring of Southern Hawker emergences and exuviae at her small garden pond.
The plot below shows weekly exuviae counts for the five years 2020-2024. Feedback from Deborah suggests that the lower totals in 2020 and 2021 can probably be attributed to shorter monitoring periods.
Since 2022, the overall annual totals have shown remarkable consistency, year on year, only varying by 4 (7%), and the mean dates for the exuviae varied by only a week. The poor weather in 2024 may have led to the mean exuviae date (19 July) being about a week later than for 2022 and 2023.
It is also notable that in 2024 Deborah recorded 18 emergences - her highest total so far.
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Weekly exuviae counts from a small garden pond in Steeple Aston for 2020 - 2024 |
Good numbers of Common Darters present
Alan Dawson, per Cholsey Wildlife
Common Darter 18 including 7 pairs (5 in cop, 2 in tandem) although no sign of ovipositing
Steve Holliday
Some activity in a brief sunny spell early afternoon in the pool just upstream from weir SU426877:
1 Migrant Hawker
4 Common Darter, inc 1 pair in cop & ovipositing
Stephen Burch
A female Common Darter spent some time sunning itself on my garden fence in Aston this morning. It also sat on my finger for a while.
David Hastings
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Common Darter © David Hastings |