MSQ,23.4.11.

Female 'Blue form' Azure Damselfly.

Male Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Teneral male Common-blue Damselfly.

A visit today to Messingham in the hope that the recent weather might have induced a few Large-red's to emerge,resulted in me seeing not 1,but unbelievably 6 species!.The first species was a female Hairy Dragonfly watched hunting along the edge of the first field down from the car park,a great sight,with a further 2 insects,both males,1 near to the plantation and 1 near the small boardwalk as you access the path down to the wader hide.After i had seen the first Hairy,i looked around the first field and amazingly found a single Teneral male Common-blue Dam,which i thought great,a superb early record,but this was about to be out done,with me eventually seeing a total of 64 insects!.I then carried on around the reserve encountering other first sightings of the year in the form of 11 Azure Damselfly,2 Large-red's,a single Four-spot Chaser and 5 Blue-tail's.This was beyond all my expectations and broke all my earliest records for all the species seen today,absolutely brilliant stuff and a great start to the season!.