Shimmering

It was a trying kind of a day - not least for anyone who had to deal with me as my emotional temperature soared - but a few good things happened, and this was one of them. As I walked down through the wild garden this morning I saw a fluttering shimmer of gold wings, and my heart lifted as I recognised the first garden Beautiful Demoiselle of the year.

Every year the brook that runs through the middle of the village gives rise to a handful of demoiselles, but until three years ago I'd only ever seen Banded. Then on a warm May morning in 2020 I spotted my first Beautiful, confirming my long-held belief that the brook should be good territory for them and giving me an excellent garden tick. In 2021 I only saw one Banded and one Beautiful on our land, but I was out and about far more that season, and didn't spend nearly as much time and effort searching the garden as I had during the first Covid summer. Then last year I didn't find any of either species - but 2022 was quite a poor season generally.

Beautiful Demoiselle larvae take two years to develop, so this fresh female will be an offspring of the 2021 generation. The species has quite a long and drawn-out season, and new adults could continue to emerge for another two months, provided it's a temperate summer and the brook doesn't dry up.