Down By The River With The Demoiselles

With a break in the weather today, I couldn’t have thought of a better way to spend the last day of my short holiday but down by the river. The bank is quite deeply cut so after scrambling down I sat down and just listened to the sounds of the river flowing by and the bird song from the wooded slopes.

There was three or four of these bright blue male Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) damselflies fluttering over the river and the bank. Occasionally they would alight on nearby vegetation. Yes, these are slow-moving compared to the larger dragonflies.

I was fortunate enough to observe a green and golden female laying eggs amongst the river flora.

Down by the river with demoiselles, and another year older, what a beautiful day indeed.

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Local river, Staffordshire, England. June 2017.