Saturday 28 January 2017

Banded Beauties

There can not be many better thrills for the odonata enthusiast than watching hundreds of Banded Demoiselles flying butterfly like up and down the rivers during a warm summers day. I am very lucky in that I can observe exactly this at Westbere along the river where they can be seen in excellent numbers. I have spent many an hour just sitting at the waters edge watching the males sitting out on prominent perches before flying out to see of rival males. Despite being very numerous, I have failed in the past few years to find any exuviae of them. I know they must be there and suspect they are in locations that I find hard to access but I will try again this year to see if any can be found. They are a very wary species and more often than not, they will fly off before the camera is pointed at them but on a number of occasions with a bit of slow stalking, I have managed to capture a number of pleasing shots of this species. When you really study the wings, you get to appreciate how much detail there is there and it adds to the fascination that I find when watching and photographing this species. With the weather hopefully warming up soon slowly, I will have a few more dipping sessions in the stream during February to see if I can find the stick insect like nymphs to which I can hopefully photograph in the tank. 



Banded Demoiselle (male)


Banded Demoiselle (female)

6 comments:

  1. To be able to see these wonderful Demoiselle flying,and on your own patch,is a delight.
    Banded Demoiselle are one of my favourites.
    Beautiful captures Marc.
    John.

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  2. Thanks John. A symbol to many that Summer is here.

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  3. Pure brilliance, lovely pictures.

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  4. Excellent captures, Marc. For some reason, these seemed to have a bad year in these parts last year. I didn't see many at all. Most years they are quite plentiful around here, although usually in single figures or low teens rather than hundreds - now that must be a sight and a half!

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    1. Thanks Richard. Like most places, some years, species have good years and the next year, poor number. It certainly is a good sight to behold though over the river.

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