Variable!

Mr U&L and I went on a wonderful tripette to Amberley wild brooks today. It is a wonderful water meadow in the sweet and very beautiful village of Amberley on the South Downs. During the winter it acts as a flood plain for the river Arun, but in the summer it is alive with Dragonflies and Damselflies! Well, I say that but I didn't see one Dragonfly today, but Hundreds of Damselflies...so many infact it reminded me of Norfolk!
Among the Damselflies were a lot of this particular species, the Variable Damselfly or Variable bluet Coenagrion pulchellum. I like this species, as you don't see it so often in Horsham where I live, although it was by far the most plentiful here, even though it is listed as scattered and uncommon
You can tell it apart from the other species of Damselfly found locally Azure and Common blue) by the incomplete anti- humeral stripes (the blue stripes on top of the thorax) and the diagnostic 'Goblet shaped' black mark on the first abdominal segment.
We also watched Swallows collecting mud for their nests, and on the way home encountered a whole swarm of Garden chafer beetles in the Bury hill car park!
Happy days.....