A Year in the Valley

A Year in the Valley

Discovering the flora and fauna in a small square of Portmellon Valley

  • BioBlitz
  • The Rules
  • Tally
  • Map
  • Bird Page
  • Contact Form
  • Beautiful Demoiselle (female)

    Beautiful Demoiselle (female)

    As you know, I’ve been having a lot of trouble catching flying insects and birds with my camera and of those that I have photographed there are a number of UFO’s to identify – mostly variations on housefly-type flies.  So, I was delighted to capture this Beautiful Demoiselle.  That is its actual name.  It’s green metallic body and translucent brown wings mark it out as a female.  The males have a metallic blue body and dark blue shiny wings.  They are found along streams and rivers and mainly distributed in Wales and the South West.

    UPDATE – I managed to catch a photo of a male Beautiful Demoiselle. Quite different to the female with metallic blue body and black translucent wings.

    Is your toadstool instagrammable?

    Well, this one clearly isn’t as its sticky top is covered with bits of grass, where I’ve been strimming the steps down into the watermeadow.  I deliberated whether it would make a suitable picture and I still haven’t identified it. To be honest, I don’t know where to start with that, so it doesn’t qualify for its own post.  However, I could add a generic ‘toadstools’ item to my tally to be going on with.

    Daisy D

    02 July 2023
    Insects, Toadstools and fungi
    Beautiful Demoiselle, Toadstool

©2023 All rights reserved.

  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • Spotted in September
  • Spotted in August
  • Spotted in July
  • Spotted in June
  • Conclusions