Damsel day

The weather was a bit ropey this morning and we were tied up with Number 1's last day of school and the inevitable sing-song. I got out of the church bit and looked at some sites around Grevie but only damsels were flying and nothing exciting or new for the square. I checked the stream at Greviebackar for Ischnura pumilio but no luck (no Odonata of any kind in fact).

In the afternoon though we all headed out and checked out the sedgy wetland in Rammsjöstrand. I have always admired this bit of habitat and have tipped it for greatness, hence my occasional visits even though it falls outside my survey squares. Today I was very pleased to discover about 20 Lestes dryas scattered over the site. It's typical that I should find dryas on the patch in the same week I drove 100's of kilometres to see some. A great, if somewhat predictable, find and the first for BK.

Business end of a female dryas, the ovipositor extends beyond the end of S10 in this species.

Male Lestes dryas at Rammsjöstrand, the first colony to be found in BK.

We just had time to look at the two small pools west of Rammsjöstrand, just one damsel flying here. Amazingly it was a male Ischnura pumilio, only my second in BK. Great day for damsels.

My first male Ischnura pumilio in Sweden. Hopefully this species will turn up in one or more of my Atlas squares this year.