If you are fortunate enough to live in an area of Great Britain or Ireland where dragonflies and damselflies are beginning to be increasingly seen on the wing (or if, perhaps you are dreaming of one day making a visit to such a place), NatureBureau has a new book about which you will most certainly wish to know: David Chandler’s “A Beginner’s Guide to Dragonflies & Damselflies of Britain & Ireland.”
As Nick Baker remarked regarding the new “Field Guide to the Caterpillars of Great Britain and Ireland,” “you can’t truly understand a moth or a butterfly without first getting to know the caterpillar.” As the overwhelmingly greatest portions of the lives of butterflies and moths are spent as caterpillars, he was – of course – absolutely correct.
On my recent travels in England, just before making the pilgrimage to the BirdFair, I had the great good fortune of exploring the area around Radley Lakes with Jo Cartmell in search of Water Voles – or at least signs thereof. As the day warmed, the butterflies and dragonflies became more active, culminating in the opportunity to snap a photo (with merely my mobile phone camera, no less) of this exquisite Common Darter, Sympetrum striolatum, male as it basked on a barbed wire fence along the path.
Written by Paul Waring and Martin Townsend, and illustrated by Richard Lewington, this forthcoming third edition of the “Field Guide to Moths of Great Britain and Ireland” promises to be fully revised, updated, and restructured.