A Warm Day in East Kent Delivers!

With the warmest day of the year today predicted for South East England and long sunny spells forecast, I decided to have a drive over to Shuart near Reculver to look for any early Hairy Dragonflies. Last year I saw my first here on the 16th April and although it may be a little early for them, I thought it was worth a try. On arrival about 12.30pm, it was indeed very warm and with a light wind, I had a good chance of seeing one should any have emerged. I spent an hour or so walking around the sheltered hedges but despite a good search, I did not find any. I did see however every other British 'bug'! Hopefully the next few days will deliver the first Hairy Dragonfly as the weather looks quite good. I will try again to get out to search for them as i'm sure the warm weather will trigger some of them to emerge. Arriving back home mid afternoon and with everyone out shopping, I had a look at the pond and could see a Large Red Damselfly nymph on one of the sticks I had put out at a forty five degree angle. I had put this one at an angle on purpose and made sure that the backround was a natural green colour of the grass to hopefully contrast the damselfly emerging. After getting the camera and getting comfortable on the grass, I took a number of shots of the emergence. It had just about started emerging prior to me starting but I took a series of photos and ended up with a few pleasing images again. Today in the good sunlight I used AV Mode, ISO 400, f8 and the speed was no less than 600. Another quality session in the comfort of the garden and nice afterwards to sit out and have a cold drink and ice cream! I wonder what the next few days will bring?

Large Red Damselfly Emerging