The River Darent that runs along the boundary of Lullingstone country park is my favored area for Banded Demoiselle, just need to find a sunny aspect and you are sure to find the male Banded Demoiselle in good numbers.
They tend to sit out on the riverside reeds or overhanging vegetation where they wait for the females to make an appearance, sometimes just a fly by, but two or three males will launch themselves after the female trying to impress her with their fluttering display flight.
The males are quite distinctive once you know what you are looking for. The only real confusion species I guess would be the Beautiful Demoiselle, unfortunately I have never seen one of these and I'm sure this is not the right type of river habitat for them.
These male Banded Demoiselles are right little posers and you can usally get a few nice shots of them.
The females on the other hand are more elusive, probably with good reason, but just as photogenic as the males if you can find one. they do blend in with the riverside vegetation quite well so maybe I,m just missing them.
I was fortunate to find three different females on this occasion, couldn't find any last year.
This female had very brown wings and brown eyes making it look like the Beautiful .
Demoiselle female, while the other two had the typical light green hue
A few other damsels were seen along the river edge, including the Common Blue damselfly and the Large red damselfly.
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| Common Blue |
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| Common Blue |
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| Large Red |
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