Today I popped into Bedfords Park for a break and to have look for red eyed damselflies. But what caught my attention were the many emperor dragonflies spread along the lake margin, each patrolling their territories and scrapping with each other where they crossed paths. Occasionally one would hover, and this one did at a…
On Tuesday I visited one of my favourite sites, Crockford Stream. The site is amazing for dragonflies and damselflies, including golden ringed dragonflies. The site is also a good one for the rare southern damselfly. It was good to see a few tandem pairs of these great little blue damselflies. The keeled skimmers were in…
While at Strumpshaw Fen I finally managed to photograph a Hairy dragonfly Brachytron pratense.
Just got in from lovely evening walk with a class of kids where we got within 3 metres of a wild rabbit! For once I had my camera with me and took these shots. Bare in mind these were taken with 30 kids (being remarkably calm and quiet!) right there next to me. In fact…
I started off today with a trip into town and had the rest of the morning to head to RSPB West Canvey Marshes. Or so I thought until I hit yet another standstill of traffic in Essex! I didn’t have time to get to Canvey, so I popped into a private reserve instead and found…
Last weekend I spent a couple of days at Strumpshaw Fen RSPB reserve enjoying the invertebrates there. One of them was the scarce chaser dragonfly, Libellula fulva. One was tolerant enough for my 35mm wide angle to be used. Though a bit awkwardly angled for the ‘traditional’ top down shot, as was this maturing male.
I started today by heading straight to the spot where I saw the emperors emerging, but they were no longer there and just their exuvia were left. Hopefully they got away safely. At lunchtime I managed some shots of broad bodied chasers, a female hovering between egg laying. And a perched male. Yesterday I managed…
Tonight at 9pm, just as I was finishing work, a couple of emerging emperor dragonfly nymphs were spotted on some reeds in a pond. The light was literally non existent as the sun had gone down and it was the end of dusk, so I had to use flash, which combined with the awkward angle,…
Today I came across the first dragonfly that posed for a photo, a broad bodied chaser. In an effort to get something different I put on my 35mm wide angle macro and got this.
On couple of days ago, on a warm morning (before the horrible bitter cold wind returned), one patch of nettles near a large pond was teeming with invertebrates. Among them was my first Azure damselfly of the year. I also saw a number of red damselflies there and throughout the day, with 12+ seen around…