Dragonflies and damselflies
How to help dragonflies and damselflies
We’ve teamed up with the British Dragonfly Society to bring you a series of films and resources to give you an insight into the wonderful world of these beautiful insects. Sadly, dragonflies have lost much of their natural habitat, but we can all do our bit to help! In our films you can learn how to provide for dragonflies and damselflies in your garden, how to identify them and how to record your sightings.
Create a dragonfly-friendly garden
We spoke to Lauren from the British Dragonfly Society, who tells us why dragonflies need our help and talks us through some of the measures we can all put in place to help these beautiful insects in our gardens. We cover everything you need to know to get started with your dragonfly friendly garden, including how to create or enhance your pond, what plants to choose, and how you can provide for the prey which dragonflies feast on.
Identify dragonflies and damselflies in your garden
It can be tricky to identify dragonflies and damselflies when you’re first starting out. But fear not! We got together with the British Dragonfly Society to give you some handy tips on how to identify some of the most common dragonfly and damselfly species that you are likely to spot in your garden in the spring and the summer in England, Scotland and Wales.
Spring
Identifying dragonflies and damselflies in spring in England and Wales
Identifying dragonflies and damselflies in spring in Scotland
Summer
Identifying dragonflies and damselflies in summer in England and Wales
Identifying dragonflies and damselflies in summer in Scotland
Need more help to identify a dragonfly or damselfly?
The British Dragonfly Society has a brilliant identification tool where you can search by habitat, time or year and colour.
Record your sightings
Have you spotted a dragonfly in your garden, or do you have a list of species you’ve spotted? You can help dragonflies and damselflies even more by recording your sightings.
The British Dragonfly Society takes their records through iRecord, which is quick and easy to use. All of the data that is submitted is sent to the British Dragonfly Society who are then able to use it to focus their conservation efforts in the places that need it most. It also allows them to map species and track how species distribution changes across the UK in response to climate change. So by recording your sightings, you can make a real difference to dragonflies and damselflies.
Support the British Dragonfly Society
We want to extend our enormous thanks to the British Dragonfly Society for working with us on this series of videos! They do absolutely amazing work to help our struggling dragonflies and damselflies across the UK. If you’d like to support the work they do, find out more about becoming a member below.
