New Dragonfly

A new species for my wildlife garden appeared yesterday, a Common Darter. This increases the number of species seen this year on my very small pond, to three. The most numerous has been the Azure Damselfly, with Large Red Damselfly close behind. Hopefully the Common Darter is from last year's egg laying here, but there is a possibility that it may be part of an immigration from Europe which this species is known to undertake.

                                          Common Darter Dragonfly.   Click to enlarge.



The plant on which it is perched is Figwort. This does appear occasionally along the stream but I suspect most gardeners pull it up as a weed.  The flowers are small but attractive, and the leaves are the preferred food plant for six species of moths. Most moths are very fussy eaters and will only eat one species of plant, so the more that we can provide in our gardens the better.

My Cuckoo, which was leading the pack flying to African wintering grounds, and had reached Morroco but then turned back north, is still wandering around in the Bordeaux area. All the other tagged Cuckoos are well ahead now, some having reached Northern Africa.