Spotted whilst mowing the grass....

[Box Brownie]

Sorry no photos......but was delighted to see a Female Beautiful Demoiselle, though I had to look it up as to its identity.

It settled on a shrub for a few minutes and we are nowhere near water...unless out neighbours have ponds that we don't know about.

Seeing it just made for a nice interlude

 

[Jannyfox]

Lovely. I saw my first damsel of the year in my garden the other day though it didn't stop to be identified. Like you I'm not close to water and none of my neighbours have ponds, unless you count the bird baths. However I see damsels regularly in the garden and sometimes dragons (just realised how this sounds but I really cba'ed to keep typing 'flies'). My theory, right or wrong, is that they'll travel quite a long way from water, and damsels more so than dragons.

 

[Stuart Philpott]

Little things to try and keep us sane 'eh mate.I love it Cool , for me it was a new paracitic wasp drinking off a new planted tray of veggies in our GH . We get a good variety as we don't care for chemicals in our garden but it's special seeing something completely new at home

We got a few dragons and damsel but neighbour has big pond ,so it's expected. but the joy is shared

 

[Jannyfox]

As I walked past our local common earlier I saw there'd obviously been a hatch and most were beautiful damsels, with just a few banded. There's a small river runs through the common.

 

[RedRobin]

Demoiselle (classed as a damselfly by some scientists) nymphs live in and emerge from flowing water whereas damselflies and dragonflies do so from still water. They are all inclined to forage for food at some distance from water and Hawker dragonflies in particular. Dragonflies can fly at about 35mph so can obviously cover some distance.

I created and Admin a group of over 6,500 members on Facebook 'UK Dragonflies & Damselflies' - Some of the members are serious experts and addicts! :

https://www.facebook.com/groups/561222590593478/

Just to show what a Beautiful Demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo) looks like, here is one, a male, a few days ago in my backyard wilderness adjacent to a small river :

Beautiful Demoiselle_M1X1147 by Robin Procter, on Flickr

And here is a female from an earlier year's flight season :

BEAUTIFUL DEMOISELLE PERCHED IN AMBUSH by Robin Procter, on Flickr

No apologies for pointing you to their anal appendages < It is the correct term and a gender identifier.

 

[RedRobin]

As I walked past our local common earlier I saw there'd obviously been a hatch and most were beautiful damsels, with just a few banded. There's a small river runs through the common.

.... They are called Beautiful Demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo) and Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) and are very different in appearance to damselflies (which are not flies).

Here are two shots of the same Banded Demoiselle male individual I photographed at the weekend on the banks of the River Stour in Dorset :

BANDED DEMOISELLE by Robin Procter, on Flickr

BANDED DEMOISELLE by Robin Procter, on Flickr

Photographically, re the above 2 images, I don't like the tiny Olympus 60mm Macro lens handling and so have started using my Canon EF 100mm Macro mounted on my Olympus E-M1X via a Metabones Adapter - Much heavier but much better balanced and so easier for me to use.