THE RETURN OF THE DEMOISELLES

My new favourites, no not 'old' favourites, the Banded Demoiselles!

So very cool and very reassuring to know that these are back and I am back there filming them because I was begiunning to wonder where in the hell the summer had gone?! Especially as we were supposed to be eight weeks into a roasting and in reality its been two days and a couple of days 6 weeks back.

Unfortunately this sudden rise in temperature combined with my sudden need to cycle for miles resulted in the most gargantuan of headaches that I get eevery year at this time. How much the temperature has risen will dictate just how bad the headaches are, especially the early ones.

I have long suspected this is down to dehydration and refer to them as my Dehydration Headaches and that the awareness of my condition of Fibromyalgia and the fact that this condition does indeed affect your ability to deal with extremes of heat and extreme changes in temperature I think that the body must also dehydrate very easily and quickly when it gets too hot too quickly?!

I normally takes a few weeks or more to acclimatise to the changes, bah humbug!

Now lets hope the waether stays good, though a little cooler would be nice, because there are a few things happening on other blogs over the next few weeks. So getting a start on this one along with some tropical Orchid stuff happening on another one and my technology blog getting some much needed content its exciting times indeed!

FLIGHT OF THE BANDED DEMOISELLE

Now what follows is a first attempt, albeit a bad one admittedly lol,  of the things I LIKE TO DO when I have something close to a fully operational and MANUAL camera.

I WILL do better but will probably have to wait until next year now and I need to get more used to the camera and its settings. I am used to Nikon's settings which I have now DUMPED as a brand because they are not what they used to be.

Even the Nikon D800 SLR, I wanted the E version, I have read many people complaining about on Amazon the most common is focusing issues. Colours not that accurate is another and this is a £2,000 camera for the BODY ONLY?! LOL.

BANDED DEMOISELLE CONUNDRUM - CALOPTERYX SPLENDENS (FEMALE)

No it is NOT a Southern Emerald Damselfly as I previously stated elsewhere and on YouTube, lol.

But then Lea Valley Park Authority are up to their usual tricks as they claim that at this site, a Dragonfly sanctuary, "over half the UK's Dragonflies can be found". My two brothers are heavily into this area and know far, FAR more than I do and they have both looked at me with utter surprise. IN fact one lives just two miles from this site?!

So when I saw a bright green Damselfly with white spots on the wings and no bands I get home, look up a website and identify it as a Southern Emerald! Lol!

I had the number 13 in my head but was not sure if that was the number of UK species or species to be found at the site. Turns out it was NEITHER as I now know that there are indeed no less than 54 species of Dragonfly in the UK?!

Now at over HALF the species this would mean around 30, give or take?! Well after 48 hours I can assure you that despite the sanctuary being nice you can knock the ZERO off the end of the THIRTY as due to this miss-identification WHAT i THOUGHT WAS four species has now turned out to be just THREE!

Also these guys are highly predatory and the sanctuary is not very big and I do not think can house 30 species of predators which likely means that if there were ever thirty species they were introduced and have since predated on each other and I watched, and likely filmed them, as the Demoiselles tried to catch the much smaller Blue Tailed Damselflies?! I got a video of a female Banded Demoiselle Eating just after catching something and the wing sticking out looked VERY Damselfly?! LMAO!

Now over odd things going on in the park at other locations I have covered, Primoroses and Orchids, use keyword 'conundrum' to find these posts to read more on what I elieve is a huge nature scam done VERY BADLY and even the locals have spotted it, this location comes under Epping Forest Council so they probably feed them cash for this site?!

Cornmill Stream

BANDED DEMOISELLE MALE - CALOPTERYX SPLENDENS

I have been searching to get up close and personal with one of these guys ever since I took those distant photos and video of one?! I home chuffed with this encounter and a couple of others I had but boy was I in for a shock when I found another site with hundreds performing aerial acrobotics, lol.

This one was spotted at my Alpine Meadow site near the Bee Orchids!

Fishers Green.

VIDEOS of THE FLIGHT OF THE DEMOISELLES

PHOTGRAPHS TO FOLLOW!! Cornmill Stream

VIDEO of FEMALE BANDED DEMOISELLE EATING - CALOPTERYX SPLENDENS

Cornmill Stream

Yes I am now and today a day later well aware that I have gotten these guys wrong yesterday!!

They are NOT SOUTHERN EMERALD DAMSELFLIES and it does not help when Lea Valley Park have lied yet again like everything else they do and suggest there are THIRTY SPECIES in a few little streams?!

I have spent to days there and thus far you can knock the zero of the figure of thirty. Well THEY STATE that there are OVER HALF the UK Species found there. Now my two brothers are insect NUTS. We are all into animals and have attended the AES Exhibit and Kempton Park many times over the years as did my late father who was firiends with David Lonsdale.

Now when I told my brothers, one of which lives minutes from this site, that over half the UK species are found there they looked at me as if I was completely bonkers. Early days yet but I think I am beginning to see why.

Also the bodies of water are not that big and I think what is likely and YET AGAIN a load were introduced there (By idiots I guarantee it) and they ended up predating on each other?!

Auriculas have been introduced among the Wild Primroses and two types along with frilly Primulas so they have a cross breeding program going on too, lol.

VIDEOS of FEMALE BANDED DEMOISELLE - CALOPTERYX SPLENDENS

Cornmill Stream

VIDEOS of BANDED DEMOISELLES - CALOPTERYX SPLENDENS

Cornmill Stream

FLIGHT OF THE DEMOISELLE

Cornmill Stream

VIDEO of BANDED DEMOISELLE DAMSEL FLY - CALOPTERYX SPLENDENS

...and how NOT to take a video of a Banded Demoiselle!!...

BANDED DEMOISELLE DAMSEL FLY - CALOPTERYX SPLENDENS

I do plan to get much better close ups of these guys as I now know they are currently around one of my Orchid sites! Spotted there literally a couple of hours after I took these shots, lol.

I have really been impressed with these lately and I have always admired Damsel Flies and the Blue Damsel Fly especially but confused how I have not taken more notice of these previously?!