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The aim of the website is to give people an awareness of the numerous species of dragonflies and damselflies that live in Somerset and to help you understand what they look like and where you may see them and enjoy them.
I started getting interested in Dragonflies and Damselflies back in 2017 and since then have slowly been building up a collection of images as well as getting a good understanding of them. There is still loads for me to learn about these fascinating insects, but that's the beauty of concentrating on a species.
Dragonflies and Damselflies are not afraid of humans and if you find an interesting spot where there are lots of them around, they will happily fly and land all around you and in some cases may land on you.
Under the 'Dragonflies' and 'Damselflies' menus are the species that can generally be seen in Somerset. Some are marked as rare or newcomers, which are generally harder to see. Each section displays a number of images I have taken along with some basic information about that species along with places where you can see them. NB I'm sure there are loads of spots I won't have mentioned, these are just the ones I have experienced. The 'Especially Good' section tries to highlight the peak period for the species at that site, they will be around longer than this period but fewer in numbers.
Under the 'My Spots' section are places I regularly visit and where the majority of these images would have been photographed. When images have been photographed outside of Somerset I'll highlight this in the description, these will be the rarer ones which are easier to photograph elsewhere.
Dragonflies - Out of the 26 recognised species in the UK, Somerset has 20 of them, 2 of which are at the early stage of getting a foothold in the county as of 2023 (Lesser Emperor and Green-eyed/Norfolk Hawker) and 2 that are rare and occasionally visits (Red Veined Darter and Southern Migrant Hawker)
Damselflies - Out of the 20 recognised species in the UK, Somerset has 12 of them with one of those species being very rare (the small red).
I'm only writing a short description on each of the species as there are plenty of books and websites out there that can be used for more detailed descriptions. Good websites are by the British Dragonfly Society and another by Odo-nutters, which do very good identification aids. Regarding books, I use 'Britain's Dragonflies' by Dave Smallshire and Andy Swash and the 'Field guide to Dragonflies and Damselflies' by Steve Brook and Steve Cham. The first contains photographs and the second, illustrations, so I find the 2 of them makes a good combination. Obviously, there are others out there as well.