Dragonflies emerging from our garden pond

A busy day and grabbed a coffee to chill our by our garden pond for a while - just in time to see 3 dragonflies Sympetrum striolatum emerge.

Large red damselflies always emerge from our pond each year and after discovering dragonfly nymphs in the pond for the first time last year - pleased to see adults emerge.

Emerging dragonflies

Dragonflies have started to emerge from our garden pond. There are a lot of dragonfly nymphs this year of varying sizes, some very small and will probably emerge next year.

They climb out of the water, up the marginal vegetation. The skin splits and they emerge as a winged adult, leaving behing the nymph skin (called the exuvia).


The damselflies emerged in a similar way earlier in the year.

Black-tailed skimmer dragonfly

While painting the front of our house I noticed a dragonfly sunning itself on our front path. Every now and then it would lift off, do a quick circuit and then settle in almost the same place.

The dragonfly appears to be a black-tailed skimmer Orthetrum cancellatum, which is a darter. This one is either a female or an immature male. The mature male has a powdery blue coloured abdomen with a black tip.