Nature on Your Doorstep Community

A place to learn, share and inspire others to create a haven for you and for wildlife.

Sign In or Register to join the conversation

Golden Ringed Dragonfly in my garden

On your distribution map for this species none are shown in East Anglia. On Sunday 16 Aug.'09 a magnificent female rested  long enough on a tomato plant for me to examine her closely. I've never seen one before. I live in Leiston a few miles from Minsmere.Has anyone else seen them?

Nuts&Bolts

  • Hi Nuts&Bolts.

    A golden-ringed dragonfly in Suffolk would be very unusual. Southern hawker and migrant hawker are the expected large dragonflies on the wing there at the moment. 

    The British Dragonfly Society's map for golden-ringed dragonfly shows its northern, western and southern distribution -  and absence from East Anglia - well.

    http://www.dragonflysoc.org.uk/cobol.html

    However, there have been some interesting records of dragonflies and damselflies occurring in unusual areas recently and there is always a chance of a vagrant perhaps being drifted across the North Sea from a continental breeding colony - especially in view of your east coast location.

    Mark