28 Jul 24 - Silverlake Dragons

I covered the group of Male Scarlet Daters at Silverlake in the last Blog Post. This Blog Post covers some of the other Dragonflies at this superb Dragonfly site. The common large species were Emperor Dragonflies. There was also at least one Lesser Emperor which flew past me in the early afternoon, but it carried on flying. I heard that one had landing in the trees at the other end of the lake which allowed the opportunity for photos, but I didn't hear that news until well after the event.

Emperor Dragonfly: Male. There were a few whizzing around the lake, but this one landed for long enough for a photo

Other Dragonflies & Damselflies I saw included Common Darters, Black-tailed Skimmers, Keeled Skimmers, Beautiful Demoiselle and Small Red-eyed Damselflies. There were also plenty of Blue Damselflies, but none of them were seen close enough to identify them: they would have been Azure Damselflies or Common Blue Damselflies.

Common Darter: Male

There were plenty of Water Striders around the water's edge: they are one of the two large UK Pond Skaters species.

Water Strider: The other large Pond Skater species is River Strider, but this species prefers moving water

Water Strider: Mating whilst feeding on a dead Damselfly

Around the water's edge, there were good numbers of Backswimmers or Great Water Boatmen as they used to be called. This is a generic name for four species in the Notonecta family.

Backswimmer sp.: This appears to be one of Notonecta family of Backswimmers. There are four UK species, but without catching it & seeing the upperside of the body, it isn't possible to identify down to a species. The brown legs could indicate it is Common Backswimmer (Notonecta glauca)

This might be a large Caddis Fly sp.: It was still struggling, but it was unlikely to reach somewhere where it could pull itself out of the water. Therefore, it is likely to end up as food for something else, perhaps the Water Striders