Review Of 2010...

Female Hairy Dragonfly eating Red-tailed Bumble Bee,Messingham Sand Quarries LWTR.

Female Willow-emerald Damselfly,Campsea Ashe,Suffolk.

Mating Hairy Dragonflies,Susworth,Lincolnshire.

Male Common-blue Damselfly,Messingham Sand Quarries LWTR.

Male Emperor,Messingham Sand Quarries LWTR.

Male Migrant Hawker,Messingham Sand Quarries LWTR.

Male Golden-ringed Dragonfly,Fen Bog YWTR.

2010 was a funny year,with some species doing very well and others not so,there was also a large immigration of continental species into the South-east of the country which didn't really reach Lincolnshire.The following is a summary of what i observed coupled with a few reports from elsewhere.The season started later than normal with some poor weather in spring,but when species did start emerging,they did so in big numbers,with large numbers of the commoner damselfly species,with particularly some big counts of Blue-tailed Damselfly,especially at Susworth,with a huge count of 1978 insects on the 28th May.On this day also,a large count of 311 Variable Damselfly and 18 Hairy Dragonfly were also counted,the latter being the best count of the species for the year,with the maxima at Messingham Sand Quarries being 14 insects.A visit to Norfolk on 5th June saw Chris,Colin and myself visiting Strumpshaw Fen,How Hill and Catfield Fen and we enjoyed superb views of Norfolk Hawker,Variable Damselfly,Hairy Dragonfly and Red-eyed Damselfy,with my first Banded Demoiselle's of the year.Another trip out of the county on the 26th June to North Yorkshire with Chris,to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve at Fen Bog,saw us seeing all the target species which included superb views of Golden-ringed Dragonfly and Keeled Skimmer.Into high summer,good numbers of Brown Hawker were recorded at Messingham Sand Quarries,with a big count of 48 insects on the 2nd August and the peak count for Migrant Hawker was 44 on the 12th September.Southern Hawker also fared better than the last few years with 8 recorded at Messingham Sand Quarries on the 6th August,but it was a poor year for Common Hawker at Crowle,compared to previous good years with 14 being the peak count on the 3rd July.Darter species didn't fare particularly well either,apart from Black Darter,with the peak count at Crowle Moor being a good total of 374,with the peak count of Common Darter being at Messingham Sand Quarries of 47 on the 12th September.On the 14th August another trip out of the county again with Colin and Chris,saw us visiting the River Deben at Campsea Ashe in rural Suffolk to see the newly colonising Willow-emarald Damselfly.We hit the jackpot here with us finding at least 52 insects and we managed to get some superb images of this confiding species.This was my only new species for the year.Finally,the last dragon recorded for the year was Common Darter on my local patch at Worlaby Carrs,with 11 being seen on the 30th October.So,all in all,not too bad a year and iam looking forward to 2011 and some South-easterly winds to blow some migrant species in!!.