First time ...

Due to health reasons, we've not been able to go out looking for butterdamseldragons this year. Until this past weekend, that is!

Saturday gave a beautiful warm sunny day, and we decided to go to Eyeworth Pond to open our 2024 damsel/dragonfly account.

Lots of odo activity! We saw a total of 12 species, including both species of red-eyed damsels.

Really nice to see so many damsels and dragons, for the first time this year. Here are the usual tables for Saturday (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):

Sunday started overcast and windy, with some drizzle. We decided to go to Rushbush Pond at Ipley Cross, which is normally good for a range of odo species.

Walking through the heather on the way to the pond, we saw dozens of silver-studded blues, the first ones this year.

But arriving at the Pond, we saw exactly zilch, nada, zero odo activity ...

After about an hour and a half, the sun broke through the clouds, and it warmed up considerably! Didn't take long for a four-spotted chaser and a few emperors to make their appearance! As well as several common blue damsels.

A sole teneral blue-tailed damsels showed itself.

And then I saw a pair of damsels fly across the pond. One settled first in the grass ...

... and subsequently on a tree trunk. 

And it really stumped us! Posted the pictures on the British Dragonflies and Damselflies FB group, asking for help identifying this damsel. Turned out to be a teneral female emerald damselfly. 

And then the clouds closed in again, ending all odo activity ... walking back across the heather, among many silver-studded blues, we saw a large skipper!

Just as we got to the car, a male beautiful demoiselle flew over!

Because of the weather, not nearly as many species as yesterday; here are the tables for Sunday (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):

Recap of 2023

Nearly the end of the year, butterdamseldragon season truly over, so time to recap 2023. 

In terms of butterflies, we saw a record total of 39 species (two more than last year), which included two new species: pearl-bordered fritillary and marsh fritillary

As to damseldragonflies, we saw the same number of species as last year: 26. One new species this year: scarce blue-tailed damselfly

So overall we saw 65 butterdamseldragonfly species, two more than last year and the highest year total so far!

In our front and back garden. we saw two more butterfly species than last year, and definitely higher  numbers than last year. The Buddleia bushes in both front and rear garden proved a big draw: 

And the 13 species included a purple hairstreak for the first time! 

Only a single dragonfly species, though it was one we hadn't seen in the garden before: a southern hawker female, seen twice.

And what about next year plans? Clearly, loads of new species, as in 2021, will never happen again. And obviously, the more species we have seen, the fewer are left to see, and the further away these occur. But we do still hope we'll be able to see one or two new butterfly species and one or two new damseldragonfly species. Time will tell!

Butterfly bible

With the butterfly season pretty much having come to an end, I stumbled across this book on butterfly life cycles, which was getting very positive reviews. The book has detailed information on eggs, caterpillars, chrysalises, food plants, active periods, etc of all 59 butterfly species regularly breeding in the British Isles.

It's not an identification guide to bring with us when we go out butterflying (too big and heavy anyway). Also, we don't plan to start looking for eggs, caterpillars and chrysalises everywhere, but I bought the book more to deepen our understanding (and enjoyment!) of butterflies and their behaviour and ecology.

The book is an incredible labour of love; I can't imagine the amount of time and effort it took to collect all the information. It contains photos of every life stage of every species resident in the British Isles: early and late eggs, all caterpillar instars, early and late pupae, plus information on ecology and conservation status in the UK.

But that's not all! A companion book by the same author, covering rare migrants, extinct species and accidental introductions was published last month!

Like the first book, it's packed with information on each species. The two books combined really can be seen as the UK 'butterfly bible', and, together, they will keep us immersed in butterflies until the first brimstone in 2024!

Both books were ordered here; I don't understand how they can sell them for as little as £28 and £24, respectively ....

Savill Garden

Even though we have seen butterflies over the last month and a half (including a few clouded yellows and quite a lot of red admirals), we haven't actually gone out specifically to look for butterflies or dragonflies since we went to Old Winchester Hill early September. 

But when we were invited to Savill Garden to celebrate the 80th birthday of a dear friend today, the beautiful weather called for a stroll around the garden. Hoping we would still see a butterfly or two, but surely the last official butterdamseldragon trip of 2023. 

A few red admirals were still nectaring on the Verbena and some late-flowering Buddleia. 

Approaching the stream that runs through the garden, it was clear the common darters were out in force, with plenty of pairs in cop or ovipositing.

One male landed on a bench, and, when I very slowly pushed my finger towards him, he stepped on to my finger and then crawled further on my hand.

Flew off a few times, but kept returning; I think I made a friend!

We also saw a single male migrant hawker hawking over the water. 

So, with the final tables of 2023 (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+), I officially call our 2023 butterdamseldragonflying season closed. 

Blue flash!

Normally, we visit Old Winchester Hill two or three times a year, but for some reason, we only went there once this year, a little over a week ago. Then, we saw a record number of butterfly species (21!), but didn't see two of the Hill's specialities: silver-spotted skipper and adonis blue. 

Given the forecast of low wind and broken clouds, we decided to try OWH again, hoping to see those two species there. Once the sun came out and it noticeably warmed up, we saw loads of small heaths and meadow browns.

Soon we spotted the first of a few silver-spotted skippers!

As to blues, we saw several common blues and many chalk hill blues; the latter were not as fresh as earlier this year ...

And then, among a few common blues, a clear blue flash! Adonis blue!

We saw at least one more individual, which clearly had escaped from some predator. Difficult as it is to capture that electric blue iridescence, this picture comes close I think. 

Despite the end of the season approaching (most gatekeepers we saw were faded and/or tatty), we still saw a total of 16 butterfly species. As well as a single common darter.

I've said it before, but this is almost surely the final large butterfly table of the 2023 season (as well as my 100th blog post; one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):

Found Susan!

We've been trying to find scarce blue-tailed damselflies three times this past month, at three different sites in the New Forest, but without success. The title of my blog post was a play on the title of the 1985 movie 'Desperately Seeking Susan'.

We decided to go back to Roundeye Hill for one more attempt, especially given it was far less windy than last time we went there. Although it was mostly cloudy, the sun did show its face every once in a while.

When the sun came out, we saw several common darters and several keeled skimmers.

In terms of damselflies, we first saw a few small red damsels, and then, a little bit later, a blue-tailed damsel. Blue-tailed, not scarce blue-tailed ...

And then, I spotted a bright orange damselfly! Could this be an immature 'aurantiaca' scarce blue-tailed damsel female?

A little later, in the same general area, another damsel, with no striping or other pattern on the thorax .... mature scarce blue-tailed damsel female??

In both cases, the damsels fit the picture in our field guide almost perfectly, but, never having seen the species, I didn't want to jump to conclusions .... 

We did see a third damsel, which almost got caught by a keeled skimmer seconds after we spotted her. The skimmer swooped down as the damsel took off from the heather, hit it, but couldn't grab it, and the damsel ended up in the water. While I was sacrificing my dry feet in the bog, she managed to free herself from the water and settled nearby. 

Coming home, I posted the pictures in the British Dragonflies and Damselflies Facebook group, and, yes, my hopes were confirmed: all scarce blue-tailed damsels!

Susan has been found!!

Here are today's tables, including the first new damseldragonfly species of the year (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):