In 2010 a number of Southern migrant hawker dragonflies (Aeshna affinis) turned up at Hadleigh Country Park, a few miles East of Wat Tyler CP. They also turned up at Vange Wick (not Vange Marsh) just to the south of Wat Tyler CP, so I’ve been hoping they would turn up here. Last year, I…
More recent photos from Wat Tyler Country Park. This time a female emperor dragonfly which was laying its eggs on some fallen reeds. This angle, although a bit top down, shows the tip of the abdomen in action below the surface. And I tried an in the environment shot too.
A few years ago on my old blog I posted a diagram to show the emergence and flight times of all the British odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) and a seemed to be quite popular. Since then a number of new species have become established in Britain, or are at least well on their way to…
Carrying on from my last post, the pond photography session gave me my best ever hawker dragonfly nymph. I got it from various angles, including these two in which you can really see that mask or labium they use to catch prey, under slung below the head. I also got a top down shot. I…
Back In July I was at Wake Valley Pond one morning when I came across a southern hawker dragonfly that had just emerged. I got some close ups of it. And some different angles.
Here is an image of a hawker dragonfly nymph that has just shed its skin (hence the light colouration), that I took using my photographic aquarium. I managed to increase the depth of field by using image stacking (combining a few images focused at different distances).
While at Rainham Marshes we noticed a fair few male migrant hawkers patrolling territories. The light wasn’t great and neither was the angle from the boardwalks so we didn’t bother with them. But then we found a spot where we could get to their level with the sun behind us, only for the sun to…