The 2025 season was notable for the hottest summer on record, with its extended drought, which led to long periods of seemingly ideal conditions. Surprisingly however numbers of many of the commoner species at some sites seemed lower than usual. This accorded with some quantitative abundance measures derived from systematic counts made at a few local sites (Marsh Wood Pond and Steeple Aston), which also showed decreases. The rarer species may have been less affected and were still well recorded.
The season started early, no doubt due to the good early spring weather, with a Large Red Damselfly recorded on 15th April and by the end of the month a remarkable total of 11 species had been seen. It was good year for Common Clubtail, with 29 records between 29 April and 7 July. Most were from the traditional area of Cholsey and Goring, although there were several sightings along the Thames upstream to Radley. A report from Chimney Meadows on 17th June was the only sighting upstream of Oxford.
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| Mature Clubtail at Goring Railway Bridge © Ian Lewington |
Another early season species, Downy Emerald, also showed well with as many as 32 records, some from new sites.
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| Downy Emerald at Orchard Lake © Stephen Burch |
Variable Damselfly is an extreme rarity and was again recorded from just two sites: Barton Fields near Abingdon and Dukes Lock Pond northwest of Oxford. The even rarer Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly was only found at one stormwater pond in Didcot, with no reports from the other stormwater ponds at Banbury and Didcot, where it had been found previously. This may well have been due to these ponds becoming too overgrown, given their lack of maintenance. Another struggling species, Emerald Damselfly, appears to continue to decline with just 22 records, from only four sites compared with eight last year.
The hot summer saw the second year of Norfolk Hawker sightings with five records in a period of just 3 days in mid-July, with one fleeting sighting from last year’s site on Otmoor. More extended views of two males were obtained at the new site of Blenheim Park Lake.
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| Norfolk Hawker at Blenheim © Gareth Casburn |
Following last years unprecedented surge in sightings of Lesser Emperor, this attractive species was again seen widely with reports from 11 sites, compared with 12 last year. Hopefully this species will become a welcome established new addition to many county sites.
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| Lesser Emperor at Blenheim © Gareth Casburn |
Another new arrival, Southern Migrant Hawker, was seen more easily at Whitecross Green Wood than at its original stronghold of Otmoor, which was drought affected. Notably there was also a report from Banbury indicating further range expansion northwards.
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| Southern Migrant Hawker at Whitecross Green Wood © Stephen Burch |
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| Southern Migrant Hawker at Whitecross Green Wood © Wayne Bull |
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| Southern Migrant Hawker at Whitecross Green Wood © David Hastings |
The comprehensive Cothill BBOWT transect surveys showed that it was a good year for Keeled Skimmer at both Parsonage Moor and Dry Sandford Pit. However Southern Damselflies showed more variable peak numbers with a small increase at the latter reserve and a small decline at the former. It was again good to see a few reports of Small Red Damselfly (peak count of 4) at Parsonage Moor with a rare single sighting at Dry Sandford Pit.
Small Red-eyed Damselfly is now widespread across the county, but peak counts were modest, with no apparent benefit from the hot settled conditions. The late season Willow Emerald Damselfly continued its range expansion. There were nearly one hundred reports from almost forty sites, with several sightings into early October, both figures being significantly higher than last year.
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| Small Red-eyed Damselfly at Grove Meadows © Stephen Burch |
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| Willow Emerald Damselfly at Grove Meadows © Stephen Burch |
The season came to a somewhat abrupt end due to poor weather, although there was a record of Common Darter as late as 13th November.
Over the year, there were again over 3000 records of 31 species –the equal highest ever species count.
Stephen Burch
March 2026
