Garden First: Large Red Damselfly

What a thrill to discover this Large Red Damselfly in our garden the day before yesterday. It is the first Damselfly I have seen this year, and I hope several more will follow. The bronze colour on the thorax is indicative of immaturity. We have a tiny water feature at the entrance to our 'wild garden', which is in close proximity to a designated LNR (Local Nature Reserve), offering mixed habitats including a stream and an area of woodland.

I checked my most up-to-date list of species seen in our home patch, and it seems I need to add this Large Red. I had a feeling I had seen these in the garden once or possibly twice before, so it may be that they simply failed to get on the list.

'HP' in my list below is for 'home patch'. Dates with a green background are first sightings (in 2017). Dates with an orange background are first sightings (in 2018). I hope we will see our first 'home patch' bats again before long. 

The list began with Lucy Corrander's Tree Following meme in mind. I am continuing it for my own interest, and think I will now omit unidentified creatures. There have, for example, been plenty of unidentified moths over the last two or three years. With identification in mind, I perhaps need to post more on iSpot this summer.

Avian sightings - unlike the Big Garden Birdwatch, a bird seen clearly from the house or garden counts for my purposes. We have, for example, yet to see a Grey Heron landing in our home patch, but we have had several good sightings of these birds flying over in the direction of the local nature reserve, one road away. We have often heard the local Tawny Owl, but I am not counting 'birds heard' (unless they are also seen) at present.

• HPb1   Great Spotted Woodpecker
• HPb2   Great tit
• HPb3   Long-tailed Tit
• HPb4   Blackbird  
• HPb5   Song Thrush   
• HPb6   Blue tit 
• HPb7   Robin
• HPb8   Magpie 
• HPb9   Wood Pigeon
• HPb10 Dunnock  
• HPb11 Starling 
• HPb12 Carrion Crow 
• HPb13 Goldfinch
• HPb14 Jay 
• HPb15 Green Woodpecker
• HPb16 Wren 
• HPb17 Bullfinch [[19 January 2017] 
• HPb18 Sparrowhawk
• HPb19 Mallard
• HPb20 House Sparrow 
• HPb21 Chaffinch
• HPb22 Grey Heron 
• HPb23 Collared Dove 
• HPb24 Coal tit
• HPb25 Redwing [[20 January 2017] 
• HPb26 Kestrel  [[8 June 2017] 

Mammal sightings

• HPm1 (?Wood) Mouse
• HPm2 Bat ... [first 2015 garden sighting 7 May 2015] [Apr/May 2015]  [[22 January 2017] 
• HPm3 Shrew 
• HPm4 Grey Squirrel  [Jan/Feb 2016] [Feb/Mar 2016] [Mar/Apr 2016] [Jul/Aug 2016] [2017]
• HPm5 Stoat
• HPm6 Hedgehog

Insect sightings

• HPi1 Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly [March 2014] [[27 February 2017] 
• HPi2 Buff-tailed Bumblebee [March 2014] [Jan/Feb 2016] [Mar/Apr 2016] [2017]
• HPi3 Brimstone Butterfly [April 2014]
• HPi4 7-spot Ladybird [April 2014] [Oct 2014] [Apr/May 2015] [Jul/Aug 2015] [Sept/Oct 2015] [Mar/Apr 2016]
• HPi5 Skipper Butterfly [July 2014]
• HPi6 Meadow Brown Butterfly [July 2014] [Jul/Aug 2015]
• HPi7 Large White Butterfly [July 2014] [Jul/Aug 2016]
• HPi8 14-spot Yellow Ladybirds [July 2014]
• HPi9 Small White Butterfly [May 2014] [Apr/May 2015] [Sept/Oct 2015 - caterpillars]
• HPi10 Orange tip Butterfly [May 2014]
• HPi11 Harlequin ladybird  [May 2014] [October 2014] [Sept/Oct 2015]
• HPi12 Garden Chafer (Phyllopertha horticola) [June 2014] [June/July 2016] [18 May 2018]
• HPi13 Ruby-tail Wasp [June 2014] [May/June 2015] [May/June 2016] [[21 May 2017] 
• HPi14 Blackfly [June 2014] 
• HPi15 Marmalade Hoverfly [July 2014] [Jul/Aug 2015] [Jul/Aug 2016]
• HPi16 Shield bug [July 2014] [Apr/May 2015]
• HPi17 Migrant Hawker dragonflies [July 2014]
• HPi18  Gatekeeper Butterfly [Jul/Aug 2016]
• HPi19 Comma butterfly [August 2014] [June/July 2016] [2017]
• HPi20 Red Admiral butterfly [August 2014] [October 2014] [Jul/Aug 2015]
• HPi21 Peacock butterfly [August 2014] [Jul/Aug 2015] [Nov/Dec 2015] 
• HPi22 Green bottle flies [August 2014] [May/June 2015]
• HPi23 Ants [August 2014] [Apr/May 2015]  [May/June 2015] [Jul/Aug 2015] [Sept/Oct 2015 ] [Jun/July 2016] [2017]
• HPi24 Squashbug aka Dock Bug, (Coreus marginatus ) [August 2014] [May 2018, mating]
• HPi25 Birch Shieldbug (late instar?) [September 2014]
• HPi26 Lacewing [October 2014] [Sept/Oct 2015]
• HPi27 Cereal Leaf Beetle [Apr/May 2015]
• HPi28  Painted Lady [2018]
• HPi29 Rosemary Beetle [[Sept/Oct 2015] [May/June 2016 - four] [May 2017]
• HPi30 Hawthorn Shieldbug [May/June 2015] 
• HPi31 Forest Shieldbug (Pentatoma rufipes) [Sept/Oct 2015] 
• HPi32 Early Bumblebee [Mar/Apr 2016] 
• HPi33 Species of Miridae [Mar/Apr 2016]  
• HPi34 Cranefly [May/June 2016] 
• HPi35 Crossocerus, wasps family Crabronidae [May/June 2016] 
• HPi36 Wasp Beetle (Clytus arietis) [May/June 2016]
• HPi37  Tree Bumblebee (Bombus (Pyrobombus) hypnorum) [May/June 2016] 
• HPi38  Moth Least Black Arches (Nola confusalis) [May/June 2016] 
• HPi39  Holly Blue Butterfly  [[26 May 2017]  
• HPi40 Dark Bush Cricket (nymph) [[18 May 2017]  
• HPi41 Common Cockchafer  [[18 May 2017]  
• HPi42 Scorpion Fly [May2017] [[23 May 2017]  
• HPi43 Soldier Beetle (Cantharis rustica)  [2017] [[23 May 2017]    [13 May 2018]
• HPi44  Cabbage Bug (Eurydema (Eurydema) oleracea)  [2017]  [[9 June 2017]  
• HPi45 Light Brown Apple moth (Epiphyas postvittana) [2017] [[23 May 2017] 
• HPi46 Large Red damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula)   [9 May 2018] 
• HPi47  Common Blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus)   [11 May 2018] 
• HPi48  Speckled Wood butterfly (Pararge aegeria)   [15 May 2018] 
• HPi49  Ruby Tiger moth (Phragmatobia fuliginosa)   [18 May 2018] 
• HPi50  Mint Moth (Pyrausta aurata)   [24 May 2018] 
• HPi51  Mullein Moth larva (Cucullia verbasci)   [14 June 2018] 
• HPi52  Field Digger Wasp   [14 July 2018]
• 
  

Molluscs

• HPm1 Brown Lipped Snail (Cepaea (Cepaea) nemoralis) [May/June 2016]
• HPm2 Field Slug (Deroceras) [May/June 2016] 

Arachnids

• HPa1 Zebra Spider [Apr/May 2015] [May/June 2015] [Mar/Apr 2016] [May 2018]
• HPa2 Garden Spider (Araneus diadematus) [May/June 2015]