I was surprised to see demoiselles flying around this small, very slow flowing beck in the middle of miles of arable desert in the East Midlands. When I first saw them I was quite convinced that they were Beautiful Demoiselles, because their wings looked completely blue. By the time I had scrambled down the bank to have a close look, they had suddenly turned into Banded Demoiselles! I took a few photos, and then noticed that there was in fact also a Beautiful Demoiselle landed on a leaf right in front of me. In the end I would estimate that there were about 10 of each.
Normally Banded usually prefers broader more open rivers (such as the Sankey Brook in St Helens), whilst Beautiful prefers slightly faster, narrower streams in hilly areas, and as such is largely a western or south western species in Britain. So this habitat seems odd for both species. I have heard that they can occasionally be seen together, but with Beautiful being quite scarce in the lowlands of the East Midlands, it was something of a surprise to find the two together here.
Banded Demoiselle.
Beautiful Damoiselle. Beautiful though these demoiselles are, the British race virgo is a little washed out looking. If you want to see what a truly beautiful Demoiselle looks like, click here and take a look at the Balkan race festiva, which I photographed in Albania in June.
Umbelifers provide us with lots of different commonly eaten veg, as diverse as Carrot and Parsley. This is Wild Parsnip, which interestingly is described in the book as poisonous!
Yellow Wagtail
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