Oxfordshire Wildlife: February 2017

Friday, 24 February 2017

Update on BDS Clubtail count 2017

Clubtail (c) Stephen Burch

With the first signs of spring appearing, now is the time to start thinking about the upcoming dragonfly season!

As many of you will be aware, the British Dragonfly Society (BDS) is planning a nationwide Clubtail count this year, which includes the full length of the River Thames in Oxfordshire.

For further details, please see this BDS webpage. The survey will be at a 1km x 1km (monad) resolution and three visits are needed between May and July. So a considerable number of volunteers will be needed if the survey is to be anywhere near complete in the County!

The BDS is taking the lead in organising this count, and now has an information pack available to send to anyone who makes contact with them. I also know they are currently allocating specific monads to volunteers. So if you are interested in participating, please get in touch with them without delay - especially if you would like to cover a particular, convenient local stretch of the river.

I’m also planning to include updates as the season progresses on my website – so I would much appreciate any reports you can provide on Clubtail sightings. I will then aim to add promptly to this page. This should provide useful feedback on how the count is going and hopefully maintain interest and a sense of involvement among counters.

Note this Clubtail page will be in addition to the one I usually maintain on current sightings – for which I’ll still be looking for as many records as possible throughout the season. So please continue to send all your other Oxon Odonata records and photos in to me, as previously.

I know from personal experience this is an elusive dragonfly and perhaps there is a better chance of locating exuviae than adults. Either way I don’t expect this count to be easy and so the more counters the better!