The wonderfully warm weather has resulted in many dragonflies emerging over the last few days while it has been so fair that early species like the Hairy Hawker are even still on the wing.
Hairy H... John Ferguson
Hairy H with lunch ... Tom Bell
The Dragonfly Pool seems to be a good stopping point at the moment and on calm days several species may be encountered with Black-tailed Skimmers and the odd chunky Emperor holding court.
Black-tailed Skimmer - Mick Chatman
Black-tailed Skimmer - Jerry Hoare
Emperor - Paul Rigby
The first Southern Hawker was seen today and there are still a couple of Broad Bodied Chasers near the Ken Barrett Hide although the lack of Four Spotted Chasers is slightly odd.
Southern Hawker - Nick Lay
Four Spot Chaser - John Ferguson
Common and Ruddy Darters are both on the wing now but the latter is definitely the more numerous and freshly emerged immatures (these are called teneral) have been causing some id problems with their plain orangey yellow bodies but the narrow wasted abdomen and wholly black legs help with a firm identification before the males turn pillar box red.
Mark O’Gallagher managed to capture a great sequence of one emerging the other day from climbing out of the water to fully pumped wings. No mean feat for both the dragon and Mark!
What a stunning sequence of images by Mark....
And another of a fully dried out young Ruddy from Bob Cooper
and a confusingly plain one from Mark Vale...
Keep your eyes open amongst these red bodied Darters as I saw at least one male Red-veined Darter on the Southern Trail in the scorching heat of yesterday and there are quite a few scattered across the country at the moment.
Howard Vaughan, Information Officer