I was over at Blashford this afternoon, although I was mostly confined to the office, luckily there were people who were not. There was a school group in and they made a couple of good finds. Whilst pond dipping they found a downy emerald dragonfly that had fallen back into the water, they rescued it and put it to dry on plants beside the pond.
downy emerald drying
I took the opportunity to get a few really close up shots as well, like this head-shot, it really is “downy” and “emerald”!
downy emerald close up
The dragonfly was not their only find though, they also found a very fine ground beetle, Carabus granulatus.
Carabus granulatus
Not only is it also a rather splendid metallic sheened insect but it also has wonderful sculpturing on the elytra (wing cases).
As I was outside to take the pictures and the sun was out I had a quick look around the pond area and found two Rhingia campestris, a common hoverfly with and extraordinary long “snout”.
Rhingia campestris male
The female was very fat, presumably full of eggs.
Rhingia campestris female
Birds reported today were at least 10 swift over Ibsley Water, 3 common sandpiper, over 30 common tern and 2 Arctic tern also on Ibsley Water.
Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve 