Today I want to be an Azure Damselfly

Four-spotted Chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata) recently emerged – Stover Country Park, Devon, UK. JB4_4252. My son and I drove down to Stover Country Park to join the Devon group of the British Dragonfly Society. This is a regular trip for us as Dave Smallshire puts on a great day. The weather on the day, like most of May this year, was poor – please bring back April.

This four-spot was the first dragonfly we saw. It had only just emerged and was photographed by most of the group. During the day we also saw Emperor, Black-tailed skimmer and Blue-tailed, Common Blue, Azure and Large-red damselflies.

My son found this damselfly which posed some difficult identification problems. How hard is it to identify a recently emerged damselfy? This damselfly gradually gained colour after starting out nearly transparent. After 10 minutes it flew off having decided it wanted to be an Azure damselfly (Coenagrion puella).

Don't forget to visit the British Dragonfly Society website, and check out Dave's book Britain's Dragonflies.