Thursday 17 July 2014

A Good Range of Species on the Wing


With the weather being quite warm this week so far, I have made the odd trip after work to a private site south of Reculver where the place has been alive with dragonflies. The sun and warm temperatures have certainly made for some good action with a good range of species noted. On my rounds I have noted good numbers of Emerald Damselfly, hundreds of Common Blue and Blue tailed Damselfly, c12 Emperor Dragonfly including 4 ovipositing females and whilst watching these I was surprised to see the male Lesser Emperor Dragonfly fly by which not long after showed on and off for c15. I spent some time trying to capture some shots but again this proved pretty much impossible as it didn't stop once and was continually twisting and turning. I at least ended up with something and maybe these can be improved upon if we meet again, that shouldn't be hard!



Male Lesser Emperor Dragonfly

There were Black tailed Skimmers everywhere and I also saw c5 Red veined Darter including a mating pair but they did not allow a close approach for any photos.


Male Red veined Darter

Also noted were 2 Banded Demoiselle, the first time I think I have seen this species here and c15 Small Red eyed Damselfly on the waters edge which provided a few photos of this still scarce species.

 Male Small Red eyed Damselfly

Add to this some Red eyed Damselfly, good numbers of Common and Ruddy Darter and a few Four spotted Chaser and it has been quite a good few days at the site.


Male Emperor Dragonfly 


Female Emperor Dragonfly Ovipositing

2 comments:

  1. I'd love to spend a whole day at a place like that Marc! Sounds like Dragonfly heaven :-)

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  2. Lovely stuff Marc, beautiful images.

    ReplyDelete