Hull Dragonfly best spots: Foredyke Green pond

An early morning trip to this relatively small pond. It is warm and sunny and as I cross the Foredyke stream a Southern Hawker is quartering the path and comes to check me out. it doesn't take long to notice the hawkers riding an long area of shallow water between the shore and the emergent vegetation. There are at least two male Migrant Hawkers chasing every now and then, and at some point a male Southern Hawker and a female that disappears into the vegetation. Common darters are also about and two mating pairs and 3 ovipositing pairs are also seen.
As for damselflies, a couple of Blue-tailed Damselflies and a single female Emerald. Then a male Emperor appears and starts patrolling the more open area of the pond. Just briefly, a brown Hawker patrols the long shallow area.
 This is a relatively new pond that I have visited five times this year. The pond is located in a wildlife area, Foredyke Green with grassland and trees that offer foraging habitat for insects, and it is close to Noddle Hill Nature Reserve, a great site for dragonflies. I'm not aware of previous records for this site. It has shallow and exposed areas, areas with emergent vegetation and marginal vegetation and a deeper area that ensures it doesn't dry in the summer. A small island is connected to the shore in the summer. It is near a footpath and it gets a fair amount of litter, so we've had a couple of litter picking sessions this year to clean it up. There are three metal pond-dipping platforms, all now quite far from the shore as the pond level is low.

This shallow area between the shore and the vegetation was much favoured by hawkers and darters

An emerald was found amongst the emergent vegetation near the shore.

Hull Dragons
This year we have recorded 11 species in the pond, so far the pond with the highest number of species in the Hull dragons survey. Seven of these were seen today. I will update the post with further records for this year.
All the photos taken today.

Male Common darter

Blue-tailed damselfly.

Ovipositing common darters.

A male Migrant Hawker rests for a few seconds on some leaves.

The male Emperor in residence favoured a spot to bask in the sun or eat prey.

Female Emerald.

Male Southern Hawker

Species list and breeding evidence

1. Emperor. Male holding territory
2. Broad-bodied Chaser. Ovipositing.
3. Four-spotted Chaser. Male holding territory.
4. Common Blue Damselfly.
5. Blue-tailed Damselfly. Ovipositing.
6. Azure Damselfly. Ovipositing. 
7. Common Darter. Ovipositing.
8. Southern Hawker. Territorial male and female present.
9. Brown Hawker.
10. Migrant Hawker. Male holding territory
11. Emerald.