On Sunday I popped to Stodmarsh NNR in Kent to see if I could see any hobbys or variable damselflies. I didn’t see any hobbies but I did see this pair of egg laying variable damselflies in tandem:
I also spotted a Nuctenea cornuta spider capturing blue tailed damselfly pair
As I watched it first bit and infected venom into at least one of them before wrapping them together.
Then it cut some of the web lines and moved them towards its hiding place in a curled up leaf.
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Nearby a hairy dragonfly perched, as usual in awkward spot.
I’ll get a decent pic one day….
Finally, on the boardwalk, a blackbird was sunbathing, something it is believed they do to kill parasites on their feathers. In the hot sun the temperature on those black feathers must have been quite high, which may well have been enough to kill parasites and/or their eggs, so perhaps there is something in that theory.
I agree with you on the Blackbirds sun batheing. We have one in our garden which does it, although it’s had precious little sunshine to do it in this year