Bourne Valley SSSI monitoring project
Bournemouth Water is looking to set up a dragonfly monitoring project at Bourne Valley SSSI in Bournemouth. The aim is to better understand the state of the valley’s dragonfly populations and set goals for habitat management and creation. The SSSI is made up of lowland heath, mire and fen woodland, and supports a rich diversity…
Volunteer recorders needed- Bourne Valley SSSI
Bournemouth Water is looking to set up a dragonfly monitoring project at Bourne Valley SSSI in Bournemouth. The aim is to better understand the state of the valley’s dragonfly populations and set goals for habitat management and creation. The SSSI is made up of lowland heath, mire and fen woodland, and supports a rich diversity…
The Damselfiles and Dragonflies of Sussex – new book
A new book on the Damselflies and Dragonflies of Sussex is now available. It includes over 170 colour photos of all the Sussex species, shows their current distributions and describes some of the best places to look for them. The books can be purchased online from Pemberley Natural History Books
NHM Gardens now open!
The London Natural History Museum gardens are now open! As you move through our gardens, follow in the footsteps of evolution. Along the way feel ancient fossils, spot a grazing Hypsilophodon and tread among the footprints of your oldest ancestors. Then leave the past behind as you step into the present day. Into an urban world, but…
BDS Northern Dragonfly Pond Project at CIEEM AWARDS
The BDS Northern Dragonfly Pond Project was recently nominated for the CIEEM Small Project Award, which celebrates the achievements of small projects in the ecology and environmental management sector. While our project did not win it was Highly Commended. You can find the award lists here.
Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies breeding in Cheshire?
An immature female Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura pumilio) was recorded last month by David Bowman at Woolston Eyes Nature Reserve east of Warrington. Immature females of this species are easily identified by their bright orange coloration, referred to as the aurantiaca colour form. Mature adults of the same species are often overlooked due to their similar appearance…
Norfolk Hawkers in Shropshire
Shropshire County Dragonfly Recorder, Sue Rees Evans, has made the first sightings of Norfolk Hawker (Aeshna isoceles) in Shropshire. She recorded three in total at a private site on the Isle Estate: a male and a mating pair. This is well outside the species core range which has, until recently, been limited to the south-east…
Adopt a Site map now available
Due to a recent system overhaul by the BTO, the BDS Adopt a Site map has been down for a number of month. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. If you regularly survey a site (at least three times every year) you can now register it on the Adopt a Site map. This helps us…
Pond Ponderings – Pond Beginnings
By Sherri Eckworth A dream come true… This was very much my husband’s dream – Grahame had wanted a wildlife pond for so long and we were about to fill in a fishpond we’d inherited. So, November 2023 seemed like the right time to get ‘his’ pond underway. With a bit of help from a…
Pond Ponderings – Mass Emergence
With close to 100 dragonflies emerging from the pond this year, Les Carter in Suffolk tells us how the pond came to be! [Emerging dragonfly] We moved to our new home about fourteen years ago, and as soon as we saw the front garden we decided to create a wildlife garden with the primary features…