Back to the Pond

I spent a couple of hours visiting various ponds and small lakes in the area this morning with the intention of catching some small 'prey' items for the dragonflies and damselflies that I have at home in the tanks. I caught a number of small bugs as well as a few Azure and Common Damselflies which I returned. Back at home mid morning I spent some time watching the Brown Hawker nymph stalking small bugs which it was successful in and decided that it would be good to release the fully grown Emperor Dragonfly nymph into my pond where it can spend the next month or so until it hopefully emerges. Probably not good news for everything that lives in there but come mid May, I will start checking in the evenings to see if it is emerging. I would like to think that I may have a chance under darkness to photograph this, we will have to wait and see! Before a trip to the pond I opted for a brief photo session of this superb predator which now measures about 47mm in length and after a while, I ended up with a few pleasing shots from different angles. I also took the opportunity with all the gear out to get a few more of the growing Brown Hawker nymph. I shall hopefully post these tomorrow. 

Emperor Dragonfly Nymph (47mm Long)