With the summer rapidly drawing to a close, bringing more unsettled weather,
the pressure was on if I was to complete the set of odonata at Bickershaw in
2026. I mean, how many more suitable days will there be for dragonfly watching
this year, especially since I have a holiday to Scotland approaching soon
which will take out a sizeable slice of the available time. So today, with a
bright sunny afternoon forecast, albeit 15 degrees Celsius, cooler than it was
a couple of weeks ago, I decided that it was an opportunity to seek out the
last remaining species on my personal site list that was missing so far this
year.
Since I started visiting the site in June 2025, I've managed to record what I
think is an amazing 24 species of dragonfly and damselfly. The only one of
those 24 species that I hadn't managed to see this year was willow emerald, a
late summer and early autumn species. Last year we saw it on a small pond near
Fir Tree flash and later on the stock pond in the north of the site.
Frustratingly when I arrived at the small pond today, the sun was behind a cloud and
there was nothing flying so I continued to the stock pond. Miraculously when I
reached the stock pond the sun was out again and almost immediately I managed
to see this stunning willow emerald perched on exactly the same tree
where we saw them last year. What a fantastic looking damselfly this is and
easy to recognise, being obviously larger than common emerald (up to 4.8cm long) with no large patches of blue in the abdomen, pale pterostigmas (the rectangular patches at
the end of the wing) and a prominent spur like mark projecting
into the cream on the side of the thorax.
So that's it, if I'm to add to my total for this year I'll have to find
something new for the site. Red-veined darter springs to mind, or possibly
scarce blue-tailed damselfly.
Also today, another clouded yellow butterfly which is at least the 13th I have
seen at Bickershaw this year.
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