Appleton Reservoir, Warrington

Quite a few dragonflies out at the reservoir today during my lunch break, most notably a few ruddy darters which were a new species at the site for me. Other species included a few brown hawkers, common darters and a single black-tailed skimmer. Fairly quiet for birds, about 30 tufted ducks, three little grebes and eight gadwall, the latter perhaps the precursor of a late summer build up similar to last year which peaked at 87 by mid-october.

Ruddy darter.

Common darter.