Early Morning Damselflies

I wasn't too sure what to do this morning but as I got into the car at 5.45am I noticed that there was quite a bit of dew on the grass so I thought I would call into a site south of Reculver to see if I could find some damselflies at rest with dew on them. I have seen a few photos from various photographers during the last few years of damselflies with dew all over their body. It makes for some spectacular photography and I hoped with a bit of work I might be able to capture a photo or two. After getting ready I made my way to the area and started to walk through the long wet grass. The sun was already shining and it wasn't long until I started to see the wet wings of Damselflies at rest in the grass. Although the damselflies were not going to fly anywhere, they were more than aware of my presence as they kept moving around the other side of the grasses as I moved into position. This was a challenge in itself but eventually a few turned around and posed nicely. I had left my monopod at home which I really needed for this job to keep the camera still but after a while I had a few shots of the Common Blue Damselflies and Emerald Damselfies.

Common Blue Damselfly

I'm still nowhere near the shots I have in mind and next time I need to arrive a little earlier to get into position while the sun rises as some of them had already started to dry out prior to my arrival. It didn't take long for the damselflies to get quite active and start to shake the dew off their bodies and wings and in no time at all, they were ready to fly.

Emerald Damselfly

As the temperature warmed up I took a walk around and in an hour or so I noted c20 Black tailed Skimmer, a few Common and Ruddy Darter, 2 Emperor Dragonfly, hundreds of Common Blue and Blue tailed Damselfly, c15 Emerald Damselfly and 1 Migrant Hawker.

Common Blue Damselfly

Next stop was a few minutes away near Reculver where I saw c10 Migrant Hawker, 1 Brown Hawker, 1 Banded Demoiselle and lots of Common Blue and Blue tailed Damselflies but no sign of any Willow Emerald Damselfly which was a worry as this site had good numbers last year. A few Migrant Hawkers perched up, mostly out of reach but one individual posed lower down where I was able to grab a few shots.

Female Migrant Hawker

The last call of the day was at Marshside where despite a good walk I only managed to find 8 Willow Emerald Damselfly which again is a slight concern as I would have expected better numbers than this. I hope many were high up out of sight and that some may have dispersed to other areas to start smaller colonies like I found the other day c1 mile away at Nethergong campsite. A nice relaxing session and hopefully I will be back to better the shots obtained today early morning with the damselflies.