Saturday 12 September 2015

Still a 'Common' Sight!

With work dominating the past week or so, I haven't been able to get out at all and so it was a nice relief when I was able to get out this afternoon for a couple of hours in the sun, although it was quite windy as well which made for some tricky photography. On arrival at a site near Reculver, it was quite warm and I could already see good numbers of Migrant Hawker flying up and down the rides, some coming to inspect me quite closely. I must have seen c30 Migrant Hawkers but despite a good try, I could not get any to pose for flight shots. They seemed to intent on flying quite high and were presumably feeding well. The other obvious dragonfly still on the wing was the Common Darter. They seemed to be everywhere and I must have seen c50. With most species now finished and the sun shining, I spent some time photographing the Common Darters and out of the wind, a few posed nicely for some pleasing photo opportunities which I was pleased about.



Common Darter (male)

I had a quick look for Willow Emerald Damselflies but most of their area was in the shade and I couldn't find any obvious candidates but no doubt they are there somewhere. I did mange to find 1 Small Red eyed Damselfly along with c20 Common Blue Damselfly and spent some time photographing a few Migrant Hawkers that had perched up. I shall post these in the next few days. After a busy week at work, it was just a pleasure to get out and photograph the dragonflies in the sun, just what I needed.



Common Darter (female)

8 comments:

  1. Marc,
    That wind was a real pain today, made the Hawkers very jittery! Nice Common darter images, they do pose well at times, hopefully I'll get a few more shots myself before they disappear for the year.

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    1. Cheers Warren. Thankfully they were mostly in the sheltered areas and remained in these areas. I just sat near their perches and they soon returned.

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  2. Beautiful photos Marc, you are the greatest.

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  3. With photo's like that it makes me wonder how good your PE instruction is.

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    1. Thanks Mike. I like to think my PE lessons are pretty good...... The pupils may say different!!

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  4. Always a pleasure to see your images of the dragonflies with all the gorgeous detail and beautiful lighting. Looking forward to the next batch.

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    1. Many thanks Wilma. Nice when you can get them with quite clear backgrounds but more often than not, they perch with lots of foliage around them.

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