The county of Bedfordshire

Befordshire Rivers, click to enlarge

Bedfordshire, showing its major rivers. Click the image to see the full size version

Bedfordshire is one of the smaller counties of England, situated in the south east. Although lacking in natural lakes and large areas of woodland, it supports a variety of habitats well suited to dragonflies and damselflies, collectively this family of insects is called Odonata.

Dragonflies and water go hand in hand and the most significant waterway in Bedfordshire is the River Great Ouse, traversing the north of the county, entering at Turvey at the west and leaving near Wyboston at the east. The River Ivel and River Flit flow through the south east before joining the Great Ouse north of Sandy. The River Lea begins in Bedfordshire, winding in a south easterly direction before leaving the county to become a tributary to the River Thames.

There are a number of lakes in the county, all man-made. Many of them are former clay or gravel pits, some of these provide excellent habitats for Odonata as long as the water has plenty of emergent vegetation and the surrounding area supports enough insect life to feed upon.

Bedfordshire's waters are in the main of good quality, supporting 21 breeding species of dragonflies and damselflies.

Bedfordshire's Odonata

The county has many significant sites of Odonata interest:

In the left hand navigation area you will find links to the dragonflies and damselflies that currently breed within Bedfordshire's borders.

I have included links to proven breeding species, but as migrants do occasionally venture in to darkest Bedfordshire, I will put pages up for those species as they turn up.

Checklist

So far, I've photographed 17 of the 21 species breeding in Bedfordshire, with 4 more to find.

It is more than likely however that Ischnura pumilio - Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly is now extinct in Bedfordshire following the demise of it's only habitat at Sundon Chalk Quarry. it has not been seen since 2003.

I've outlined the list in the table below:

 
Scientific Name
English Name
Calopteryx splendens Banded Demoiselle
Lestes sponsa Emerald Damselfly
Platycnemis pennipes White-legged Damselfly
Pyrrhosoma nymphula Large Red Damselfly
Erythromma najas Red-eyed Damselfly
  Erythromma viridulum Small Red-eyed Damselfly
Coenagrion puella Azure Damselfly
Enallagma cyathigerum Common Blue Damselfly
  Ischnura pumilio Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly
Ischnura elegans Blue-tailed Damselfly
Aeshna mixta Migrant Hawker
Aeshna cyanea Southern Hawker
Aeshna grandis Brown Hawker
Anax imperator Emperor Dragonfly
Brachytron pratense Hairy Dragonfly
Libellula quadrimaculata Four-spotted Chaser
  Libellula fulva Scarce Chaser
  Libellula depressa Broad-bodied Chaser
Orthetrum cancellatum Black-tailed Skimmer
Sympetrum striolatum Common Darter
Sympetrum sanguineum Ruddy Darter
Denotes spotted and featured in the galleries

 

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