Tuesday 14 April 2015

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

13 comments:

  1. Keep them coming. I doubt I'll ever tire of them.

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    1. Cheers Adrian, their adult life is all over too quickly so I'm making the most of seeing them emerge and photographing them.

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  2. Marc,
    This one seems to have emerged quite Red straight away...............maybe you embarrassed it by catching it emerging :-)

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    1. Most of them are quite red already. Its one of the signs I look for to know they are ready. Perhaps the background colour makes it stand out more.

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  3. Stunning shots, Marc! Knowing of my renewed interest in dragonflies, Derek from Letter from Sheppey sent me the link to your blog. I am looking forward to going through your older posts to see how you have set things up. Living in Belize, the conditions and most (all?) species will be different, but I am sure a lot of your techniques will be applicable. I see hours upon hours of dragonfly watching my future ...

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    1. Many thanks for looking Wilma, I hope you enjoy some of the shots.

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  4. Marc,
    Have a look at Wilma's blog www.southenglishtown.blogspot.com she lives in a quite tasty place.

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    1. Cheers for passing on the link Derek. Always nice to get someone new to look at the blog.

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  5. Super photos Marc, such fantastic detail.

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    1. Cheers Ian. Pleased with the detail in these.

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  6. More great shots Marc saw one from the reedbed hide today.

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    1. Nice one Mike. The first I have heard of from down there. Looked for Hairy Dragonfly today but no joy, any day now though!!

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  7. Great images again Marc. At last a few Large Reds showing down here near the Sussex coast today.

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