The other day Emma asked me; "how do you tell if it's a damsel fly or a dragonfly?"
I was always under the impression that damsels are the skinny ones and dragonflies the heavier set flying machines. I don't know where I picked this information up - probably from my parents - but I passed it onto my daughter.
Anyway, after she asked me I thought it wise to check up and discovered that I was (kind of) right. But up until recently I didn't know my chasers from my hawkers!
- Read this great little BBC guide to help identify various damsels and dragons.
- Dragonflies see the world in slow motion.
We have already spotted a couple of chasers nearby (again, I didn't know they were chasers at the time) and on last weekend's wild camping trip there were hundreds or thousands of iridescent damselflies (mostly demoiselles and common blues).
A terrible iPhone picture of an Emerald Damselfly that joined us this evening.
It's Wednesday again and the toils of a schoolday and the weekly swimming lesson have rendered us a little tired. So we sat in our garden, a few hundred metres from the River Ouse where most of them reside, and watched in silence as Emma ate her dinner. Two dragonflies buzzed around, flying laps of our small lawn. Maybe they were heaving a race!
