Ashford in the Water Dragonfly Survey 2025

Now that the current November cold snap has effectively killed off this years’ dragonfly season, it seems a good time to put my findings and experiences through the summer into a brief report.

I suppose the first thing to note is that it has generally been an unusual and in some ways confusing year, very much a game of two halves, to use a football metaphor.  The hot and dry weather in spring and early summer saw an early start to the dragonfly season and through May and June the early-flying species put in a good show.  However, when we arrived at July and August, usually the peak time to see dragonflies on the wing, numbers seemed to nose-dive and the later species, especially some of the large Hawkers, had a disappointing year.  Possibly the drought conditions and generally low water levels contributed to this.  It has clearly been a difficult year for both agriculture and wildlife.

I began the year with some concerns about some of the ponds I visit on a regular basis.  I expected some impact on the dragonfly population at Thornbridge where the maintenance work to manage the water flows had resulted in the loss of much of the emergent vegetation, especially on the North Lake.  In the event, while numbers of most species were lower, the impact was less than I might have feared.  The altered conditions were actually favourable to some species (see Black-tailed Skimmer, below).

Brock’s Pond (the pond next to Shady Lane by the industrial units) was in a poor state, even in early spring, being badly silted and choked by Reedmace and Iris.  I only recorded a handful of Large Red and Azure Damselflies there and even these had disappeared by June.  However, Will’s intervention in July, dredging and remodelling the pond, had an immediate effect.  Within hours the absentee dragonflies began returning and breeding once more.  I had recorded 14 species there by the end of the summer.

The Pond higher up on Pennyunk Lane (which I refer to as Pond Corner) is a different story.  This pond has been steadily deteriorating for the past few years, becoming filled with mud and choked by rushes.  It has still maintained good breeding populations, but the drought this year finished it off.  It was quite sad to see it, at the height of summer, more or less devoid of standing water and full of cattle dung.  It will be interesting to see if anything will have survived next year.

Pennyunk Lane 1, fared reasonably well in the drought conditions and was very active in spring and early summer, though activity here too tailed off dramatically from July onwards.

I didn’t see much on the river this year.  In fairness I probably spend less time here than the other sites, but it was still a disappointing tally.

On the plus side, I recorded 18 out of the 19 previously recorded species at Ashford this year.  The only absentee was the Black Darter.  I don’t regard this as a breeding species in our area, rather a chance vagrant, so it isn’t really a worrying loss.   

Another positive observation is that the flight season has been extended at either end, with adult dragonflies being recorded on the wing in both April and November for the first time.

Report Carried out by Simon Unwin