Recording in Cheshire 2013

Cheshire Odonata 2013

The season started very slowly due to the cold weather and there were no April records at all and it was May 5th before the first Large Red Damselflies Pyrrhosoma nymphula were seen. After that things improved and a good season seems to have been enjoyed by most species but no records were received for Beautiful Demoiselle Calopteryx virgo, although This is likely to be due to lack of recording in the restricted number of places where it is found. Ruddy Darter Sympetrum sanguineum was scarce during the year and this seems to reflect a slow decline in numbers since it first moved into the county in the 1980s and 90s.

One of the highlights of the year came in early July when Barry Shaw found a male White-legged Damselfly Platycnemis pennipes on the canal at Baddiley. It was always thought possible that this species was using the Llangollen Canal as a route to migrate northwards from the Severn to the Dee and this sighting certainly boosts the theory. Equally encouraging was the sight of White-faced Darter Leucorrhinia dubia flying in Cheshire for the first time in ten years; a good start to the reintroduction project.

Twenty years ago the Broad-bodied Chaser Libellula depressa was a scarce insect in Cheshire but in 2013 June and July saw the species recorded right across from the Inner Marsh Farm RSPB reserve on the Wirral, to the hills of East Cheshire at Bosley.  A record of Common Club-tail Gomphus vulgatissimus east of Aldford was over 10km from its only known breeding location on the Dee and notable as this species has rarely seen far from that river. Another interesting sighting was a single Golden-ringed Dragonfly Cordulegaster boltonii at Hockenhull Platts in late July. This species is still not known to breed in Cheshire but the increasing number of sightings suggest that it may yet do so if suitable waters can be found.