Two bizarre Odonata tales

You'll hear more about my patch for Odonata in north Bedford as I go on. In essence, it's a 1m-wide brook with lush emergent vegetation which always looked good, but until I actually dedicated time to recording, I could never know for sure.

It's good. In fact, for this kind of limited, small-scale habitat, I reckon you'd be pushed to match it.

Saying that, it's been a strange year - unexpected positives followed by bizarre, inexplicable drop-offs:

1. Beautiful Demoiselle: This is not a Bedfordshire insect; it never has been. The faster-flowing, stony-bedded watercourses that are the hallmark of the species' existence don't really exist in the county, while the more ponderous, sludgy types very much do. As a result, Beds is arguably amongst the best Banded Demoiselle counties in the UK.

2025 was a special year here at the Renhold Brook. Beautiful D was proven to be present for the first time, and prior to this was only really at Cranfield in Beds (and perhaps Flitwick). Not just present, but in good numbers, with reliable high single figures of males from mid July all the way to early September, and a good number of females and tenerals too. They came to my attention late, so I'm not sure about the state of play in May and June 2025. 

Fast forward to 2026, and it's been odd. They were by far the commoner Demoiselle species in late May and early June, and then just...disappeared. I've seen a few recently, in late July, but I'm not sure whether dispersal, competition with Banded, predation, or some other (environmental?) factor has caused this. 

Beautiful Demoiselle Calopteryx virgo (male), Renhold Brook, June 2026 (© Leo Bateman)

2. Green-eyed (Norfolk) Hawker: I prefer the first option - this really isn't a Norfolk insect in the UK any more. I'd have justification to call it the North Bedfordshire Hawker now, based on that logic. 

Green-eyed Hawker was first seen at the patch on May 25th, a few days after the first (reasonably) nearby records at Willington, a wonderful area for Odonata at that time of year. This was the first Renhold Brook record ever to my knowledge, and signalled part of a sudden large-scale westwards expansion of the species. I thought a few miles dispersion to Renhold was significant, but soon they were turning up at all manner of places; Stewartby, for example - a good tennish miles further west. Fifty miles west, Oxfordshire was seeing a substantial uptick. 

Something remarkable was happening. I had a great time up until the second week of June watching these beautiful things hover at almost touching distance - multiple adults, multiple immatures - and then, gone. I haven't seen one at Renhold Brook since 14th June. As I write, in early August, they've been present up until the last week at other sites within ten miles. 

Green-eyed Hawker Aeshna isoceles, Renhold Brook, end May 2026 (© Leo Bateman)

Perhaps I should just let the rigours of nature take their toll, but these two tales do concern me. The habitat is good - the fact that there are immatures of both species confirms egg-laying in previous seasons. 

The truth is I'll probably never know the cause. All I can do is wait until next May, and watch....