Country diary: The beautiful demoiselle lives up to its name

On the banks of Dragonfly Pond, family mutiny is brewing. My kids have just missed an azure flash across the water that vanished before I could call “Kingfisher!”. They are not impressed. Having lured them to Exbury Gardens with the promise of winged beauty, I’m hoping the pond will live up to its name.

I needn’t have worried. Dragonfly Pond is one of just 10 dragonfly “hotspots” – as designated by the British Dragonfly Society – in England and, from the floating pontoon, we soon spot male small red-eyed damselflies perching on territorial platforms of broad-leaved pondweed. A pair of mating damsels fly past, clasped in a heart shape known as the wheel position. Male emperor dragonflies patrol the margins like feisty Chinooks, while females oviposit on the undersides of aquatic vegetation, their sturdy abdomens probing the water with surprising deftness. Within minutes we’ve identified five of the 22 species recorded in the gardens, but to find the jewel in the crown, we need to follow the streams.

Canoeing up the Great Ouse in Bedfordshire in late July, we passed banded demoiselles, shimmering among the reeds in their hundreds. Now we’re hoping to see the only other British damselfly in the Calopteryx genus – the beautiful demoiselle. Unlike the teeming pond, though, the streams appear devoid of life, and the children’s enthusiasm begins to wane. Then a spark flickers in the oak tree above our heads. Holding the binoculars steady for my daughter, my hands over hers, I feel her gasp. Our first beautiful demoiselle.

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Sunlit from behind, the male damselfly looks too synthetic to be real. His wings are fashioned from wire and gauze, his abdomen dusted with sapphires. He glitters in the canopy as if the oak has tired of producing acorns and miraculously brought forth a gem.

Beautiful demoiselles are exceedingly territorial, but this male has no need to move right now. There are no conspecific rivals to chase off, only a golden-ringed dragonfly that alights momentarily before resuming his own boundary patrol. Under normal circumstances, the dragon’s ostentatious black and gold body would command all our attention, but the kids barely give him a second glance. They only have eyes for the iridescent damsel in the oak.