I myself am a creature myself of warm, sunny places. I can 'do' snow and ice if I have to, but only from the comfort of several layers of thermals.
So I find myself drawn to those species of garden wildlife that help me cling onto the idea that we're still closer to summer than we are to winter.
The 'winter deniers' in my garden this week have included Chiffchaffs, those little olive-coloured warblers that are one of the last of our summer visitors to depart for sunnier climes (and indeed a few stay in warm pockets of southern Britain overwinter).
And there was a Red Admiral butterfly and, yesterday, a Silver-Y moth too.
But at Pagham Harbour on Wednesday I was delighted to see some dragonflies still on the wing. Some were Common Darters, the short red dragonflies, coupled up in their 'wheel' mating position - very kama sutra.
And then there was this beauty:
It's a mature male Migrant Hawker.
You can tell male dragonflies from females because they have three 'appendages' instead of two (the lucky things). These are the flappy bits right at the tip of the abdomen.
Hopefully in the photo you can see the three appendages. The two either side are long and dark, and the one in the middle in this photo looks short and very pale. These are used for grasping the females by the head - it's more romantic than it sounds (I think).
What makes this a Migrant Hawker is the row of dots down the abdomen, which end with two smaller dots rather than a bar.
And you see the thick blue bar at the top of the abdomen? Well, above that is a thin yellow mark edged with black that looks a bit like a yellow nail (as in the thin you hammer into wood rather than finger nail), another distinguishing feature.
The blue-on-black colours make this a male Migrant Hawker, whereas a female would have a brown abdomen with yellow spots.
This is a dragonfly that is very typically on the wing in late summer and early autumn, their numbers boosted by migrants from southern Europe, hence the name. And over the last couple of decades it has spread further and further north. The British Dragonfly Society's wonderful webpages have a map showing where it has been recorded, and it is amazing to see it has even reached Scotland now.
And this is a dragonfly often seen flying around in the shelter of trees and tall hedges in garden, so keep your eyes peeled for them and the last gasp of summer they bring