Dragonfly ponds 23.06.2014

A survey of the Dragonfly Ponds this morning brought some surprises. Amongst the 4 spotted chaser skirmishes, the north pond had two common hawkers emerging, while the southern pond had 10+ newly emerged emerald damselflies and even a new common darter. it is exceptionally early for these species and I wouldn't normally expect to see any of these 3 until mid July. It's amazing what a mild winter and warm spring can do for aquatic insects. What is also interesting is that common hawker normally breed in acidic water, and one would expect to see southern hawkers emerging from these ponds, as they are the large hawker of neutral water in this region. Maybe southern hawkers will emerge later ?