Latest Sightings
If you would like to check out the latest dragonfly sightings in your local area (Vice-county) or nationally, you can do this through the iRecord website. Records in iRecord can be labelled in several ways. ‘Accepted’ records are those that have been verified as correct by the County Recorder(s). You can exclude ‘not accepted’ or ‘queried’ records etc using one of the dropdown menus as you work through the instructions below.
Instructions for viewing Latest Sightings in iRecord
We have also created a short video guide that you can watch below:
Share A Sighting
If you have seen a dragonfly and want to share your sighting or get help with species identification you can post in the following Facebook group, which is run by Neil Phillips, one of our County Dragonfly Recorders: British Dragonflies and Damselflies Facebook Group
Be assured that your request to join will be accepted promptly as the group is monitored regularly. It is run by experienced dragonfly enthusiasts, so it is a good place to request species identification help too.
Or share your sightings on our own Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, too.
Our Scotland team has its own Twitter account and Facebook group.
There is also a Facebook group that covers our Migrant Dragonflies Project, which is run by project coordinator Adrian Parr and anyone can request to join here.
Enter A Record
If you are confident of your identification please also enter it into the BDS database on iRecord. Your records will help us track the distribution of dragonflies across the UK and thereby aid their conservation. Click here.
Title image: Hairy Dragonfly by Dave Smallshire
- Somerset
- Southern Hawker egg laying
Female Southern Hawker was clearly laying eggs in the new plants we had just put in the rocks around our garden pond.
- Nottinghamshire
- Notts Willow Emeralds
The wife and I took a walk along the Chesterfield Canal at Gringley and were surprised to see 2 Willow Emeralds on bank-side Figwort. Our first Notts records for this Damselfly.
- Wiltshire
- Enormous Southern Hawker
This dragonfly visits us every day. She flies in and out of out conservatory – and around the fountain.
- Warwickshire, Birmingham, Black Country
- Beautiful
Southern Hawker flying around in my conservatory
- Beds, Cambs, Northants and Peterborough
- They get everywhere now
Willow emerald dragonflies. Two in tandem and one lone one. By the brook that runs past the Botanical Gardens, CB2 1JE.
- Nottinghamshire
- Dragons in Nottingham
Valley road water meadow many migrant hawkers male and common darters male and female a good afternoon watching them .
- Durham
- Rock lounging
? Southern hawker flew in and occupied a mossy rock by our garden pond.
- Durham
- Rock lounging
? Southern hawker flew in and occupied a mossy rock by our garden pond.
- Sunderland
- Beautiful emperor dragonfly spotted today
Inland at a retirement home garden no water it was flying around the car park and rested on a plant for a while before flying away
- East Lothian
- New pond visitor
Our pond is less than 2 months old and today we had our first dragonfly visitor and she laid eggs. Southern Hawker, Pencaitland, East Lothian.
- Cambridgeshire
- Hawkers Galore
I had a lovely two and a half hour afternoon walk along Burwell Lode Wicken Fen 1.30 pm-4.00 pm. Migrant Hawkers very numerous, several pairs copulating. Delighted to see 2 female Brown Hawkers ovipositing only a few inches apart for just over 1 minute. 1 female ovipositing from 1.40 p.m-2.22 pm. 2 Southern Hawkers 1 male and 1 female, a few male and female Ruddy and Common Darters, 3 Willow Emerald Damselflies, including a copulating pair , 1 Blue-tailed Damselfly and flight views of 2 unidentified blue Damselflies.
- Newcastle upon Tyne District
- Southern Hawker my first ever spot!
In the buses next to the metro line flitting about and very amiable to being photographed.
- Durham
- Rock lounging
? Southern hawker flew in and occupied a mossy rock by our garden pond.
- Kent
- A perching darter
A common darter – perched on a sumac tree branch on a sunny and warm September afternoon.
Photographed in my back garden in Leysdown, Kent, a few feet away from a pond.
- North Yorkshire
- The emperor rules
Spotted a male Emperor on our pond in one of our fields at the end of East Ings Lane Pickering N.Yorks. Today Sept. 13 2020
- Lincolnshire
- Garden Sighting
Common darter (male). Ironically landed on a garden ornament of a dragonfly!
- Devon
- Bovey Basin sites
Lovely weather for an end of flight season check at some Bovey Basin sites. Most unusual sighting of 10 species was a male Black Darter at Little Bradley Ponds, the first there since September 1978. Although obviously a wanderer, it looked strangely at home perched above a bed of Crassula, rather than its usual Sphagnum. Beautiful Demoiselles were at 3 sites, 1 Emerald and 9 Small Red-eyed Damselflies at Little Bradley Ponds and a total of 18 Migrant Hawkers (with egg-laying at LBP).
- Highland
- Northern Emerald male
Northern Emerald, male. By the Badenock Way, NH803003, between Drumguish and Inveruglas (Inveruglass on OS maps). Flew fast NE close by us.
- North Yorkshire
- Dragonflyby!
We took a walk around Yearsley on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors and sat at Oulston Reservoir and there were so many buzzing about. We think we saw a common darter, brown hawker and possibly a common hawker? Lots of different colours and sizes. A great place to spot dragonflies
- Nottinghamshire
- Dragons in Nottingham
Sellers wood nature Reserve a great wonderful day mating common darters on my hand wow another darter on top of my hat defending his airspace from a southern hawker just amazing to watch . also watch 3 males willow emerald damselfly first time i have seem this damselfly here too. 16 odonata from this site.
- Cheshire and Wirral
- Beautiful Female Southern Hawker in our garden
A wonderful large female Southern Hawker spent a long time in our garden this morning. It was a privilege to see.
- Shropshire
- Prehistoric southern hawker silhouette
Spotted (we think) a southern hawker, in the conservatory, in the evening. We first saw it as a huge silhouette behind the curtains. Presume it feeds by the ditch along the edge of our garden
- Glamorgan
- black darter
black darter dragonfly at forest farm nature reserve in Cardiff
- Cambridgeshire
- Waiting in line for coffee …
A female Common Darter Sympetrum Striolatum
National Trust’s Anglesey Abbey
- Herefordshire
- Southern Hawker – Herefordshire
Seeing daily at the moment around garden pond
- Derbyshire
- At the pub
Sat in pub garden which has a large pond and an emperor dragonfly was buzzing around
- Cambridgeshire
- Willow Emerald in the Garden, Again
A Willow Emerald Damselfly perched briefly on a shrub in my garden today. It’s not the first, since I saw one here on 9th August, which I reported. I omitted to mention the location last time, but it’s Houghton, between St Ives and Huntingdon.
- Lincolnshire
- Willow Emerald
5 Willow Emerald Damselfly including a mating pair at Baston Fen Nature Reserve
- Lincolnshire
- Golden Ring dragon
On a path at the Frampton Marsh RSPB reserve on 12th September 2020
- Lincolnshire
- Just seen a Southern Hawker. Wow!
1:30pm today over my garden pond. Visited for about 5 mins beautiful like green with very dark blue black stripes what a privilege