The warm spell continues, and after lunch I headed to Noddle Hill, to watch dragonflies. This local nature reserve on Bransholme has a fishing lake with plenty of marginal vegetation and several ponds, including one with a pond-dipping platform. The site was much drier than usual and the water level was low in some ponds. Male Black-tailed Skimmers sat on pretty much each fishing pontoon and they were surprisingly approachable.
At least three Four-spotted Chasers were also on the NW side of the pond, these favouring the tip of yellow flag leaves to keep watch.
This Four-spotted chaser had a few mites on its abdomen.
A male Emperor Dragonfly patrolled low over the water and a female was egg laying. It caught some larger prey and appeared to land on the trees, but I couldn't locate it.
Emperor patrolling and hunting.
I walked around the reserve. By one of the ponds a single Emerald Damselfly (top shot), my first of the year and a nice addition to my year Yorkshire List. A Ruddy Darter was also about, and then I found another my the fishing lake, squabbling with a Four-spotted Chaser.
Ruddy darter, male.
Female or immature male Ruddy darter.
There were plenty of Common Blue, Black-tailed and Azure Damselflies, mating and ovipositing on the shore of the fishing lake and the pond-dipping pond.
Blue-tailed Damselfly.
Ovipositing Azure Damselflies.
Mating Azure Damselflies.
Common Blue Damselflies in tandem.
Overall, a nice outing from a site well known for its dragonfly diversity, with 8 of the 14 species recorded active today.
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