Learn all about Devon's dragonflies

East Devon District Council’s Countryside team is offering a great opportunity to find out more about dragonflies later this month.

On Sunday, 29 June, Dave Smallshire, British Dragonfly Society Trustee and co-author of Britain’s Dragonflies, will be returning to the Axe Estuary Wetlands to lead a Wildlife Training Day.

The course is suitable for anyone with an interest in dragonflies and damselflies – participants will learn how to find, capture and identify dragonflies, discover evidence of emerging specimens and hear all about their amazing lifestyles.

Steve Edmonds, the council’s countryside team leader (sites), said: “With their amazing colours and turbochcharged lifestyles, dragonflies and damselflies are fascinating inhabitants of ponds, rivers and marshes. However pretty they appear to us, they are in fact ferocious predators as nymphs, the form in which they spend most of their lives underwater. They enjoy a diet of fish, tadpoles and newts, often much bigger than themselves. It’s an incredibly interesting subject.”

“When the nymphs become adult dragonflies they only live a few weeks. Brilliantly agile in the air, catching food in their basket of legs and hairs, these primitive beasts that have been patrolling our ponds and rivers for millions of years have evolved to be the king predators of many a garden pond.”

The training day, which costs £30, will include visits to three local areas. There is a maximum of 10 places - so book early to avoid disappointment. Call 01395 517557 or email countryside@eastdevon.gov.uk for more information or to book.