Presented with a sunny but blowy morning with impending rain, I decided to check out some of the ponds on the landward side of the Coast Road. I’d heard that during the hot weather a couple of weeks ago these ponds had been packed with dragonflies but not investigated at the time.

On the way I found some butterflies and hoverflies in the woods south of Shore Road including the ‘Batman Hoverfly’ Myathropa florea, and at the corner of the woods by Shore Road at least 3 Migrant Hawkers and 2 Common Darters were warming up.

The first pond I visited (Birkdale LNR Slack 24) appeared only to be occupied by a sole patrolling Emperor when I arrived, but the sun gota bit warmer and soon another two Emperors and several Common Darters began to show themselves. Scrutiny of the Juncus that covers much of the pond eventually revealed a few Emerald Damselflies.

On to the second pond (within Slack 13). En route I came across numerous Common Darters sunning themselves on the path, and as I arrived I was buzzed by a Brown Hawker. As at the previous pond, things were quieter than I had expected given that the sunny spells were still warm, but I added Blue-tailed Damselfly and Ruddy Darter to day’s haul before I felt the cold front roll over me and could see it was time to head home before rain.