I had my doubts about today’s weather, but it’s forecast to turn colder soon, and it seemed possible that this might be my best chance for at least the next ten days to search the Worcestershire bank of the River Severn for Common Clubtails, so I headed over to Uckinghall. In the event the weather was much better than my apps had predicted, and I had a very productive day.
Common Clubtails bely their common name by being distinctly uncommon in this country, but there are several other species in the genus, which we don’t get here at all, and in mainland Europe this one – Gomphus vulgatissimus – is the most abundant. The British Dragonfly Society describes the Common Clubtail as existing in very localised pockets on the Rivers Thames, Arun, Dee, Severn, Wye and Teffi, and it’s on the Red List of near-threatened species. Until recently it was also found on the Avon, but sadly it seems to have disappeared from there, so the Severn is the nearest river to me by which I might find one.
Apart from their scarcity, the other problem with hunting Common Clubtails is that you’re only ever likely to find one when they’ve just emerged from the river, because as soon as they can fly confidently they disappear off to the nearest woodland, where they live in the tree canopy, and only return to water to breed. This is why most of the photos you’ll ever see show immature specimens, like this male – who was fully expanded, and as far as I could tell perfect, but in the cool and windy conditions was struggling to spread his wings and get them moving. I checked on him a few times over the course of about an hour, but in the end I decided that I was only causing him extra unnecessary stress, and took myself off to Croome for coffee and cake.
Fully refreshed, I then swung down to the a different section of the river, at Severn Stoke, where my waters were telling me I was sure to find another Clubtail or two. The last time I photographed one there it only took me about ninety seconds to find it, because it was drying out on a nettle bed at the edge of the car park, but today my waters lied to me and Clubtails were there none, either in the car park or anywhere else along the stretch of bank I was able to check. What there were however, were several very fresh Beautiful Demoiselles, and given that the County Recorder gently and politely declined the putative female Beauty I offered him last week, these were if anything even more welcome. My second photo today is one of the (definite) females that add the Beautiful Demoiselle to my 2026 list.
R: L2, C9, D5.
