Valley Park, Didcot, 2 July evening

This new storm water site with open access is in Didcot, just south of the A4130 link road from the A34. It was described in Ian's initial post back in May -  https://oxondragonflies.blogspot.com/2026/05/valley-park-didcot.html.

The OS coords of the main spot he reported then are SU497913.

For this visit, Ian reports that the best area seemed to be the north shore of the eastern pool.

13+ Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies . 5 males, the rest were tenerals of both sexes - their normal emergence period extends from late May until into July, with a peak late June (Brooks & Lewington, 2002).

15 Blue-tailed Damselflies
2 Four-spotted Chasers
3 Black-tailed Skimmers
3 Emperors
Common Darters and Common Blue Damselflies

Ian Lewington

Scarce-blue tailed Damselfly (immature, Aurantiaca phase) © Ian Lewington

Scarce-blue tailed Damselfly (immature, Aurantiaca phase) © Ian Lewington

Scarce-blue tailed Damselfly © Ian Lewington