Monday 12 August 2019

Plenty on the Wing

With lighter winds and some sunny spells forecast for yesterday (Sunday), I took a casual drive over to Nethergong around 9am where the plan was to walk around the east and northern section of the site and make a general count of the Willow Emerald Damselflies, before trying to capture a few photos of the top side of them without much clutter in the photos. It wasn't long until I had seen my first and them moving to what is probably one of my favourite areas in a sheltered sunny ride, there must have been around 30 Willow Emerald Damselfly all perched up in a small area. Moving on down the eastern side of the site produced a few more every few metres and this was the same on the north side too with good numbers all perched up in the exposed branches of the trees. A walk down the side of the stream produced a few newly emerged Willow Emerald Damselflies making their maiden flights. I ended up counting a respectable 112 Willow Emerald Damselfly which is up on last years total for the same period. I have yet to visit around lunchtime / early afternoon where normally they can be seen in tandem and ovipositing into the various nettles, bushes and trees so this will be interesting to see what kind of numbers I can see. They tend to disperse well around the campsite around this time so there are areas I have yet to look at which will hopefully increase the numbers. Weather permitting, I can get down in the next week or so to see what is happening with this species and continue to monitor them. After counting, I went back to a few areas and let the camera out of the bag where I wanted to capture a few shots of them from the top. Not always an easy task as they have such a long abdomen and getting everything in focus can be challenging. I found a few likely candidates low down and rattled off a number of shots, trying to eliminate the amount of clutter in the background with some working out quite nicely. Also seen included 1 Southern Hawker, 1 Brown Hawker, 4 Migrant Hawker, a few Blue tailed and Azure Damselflies and plenty of Common and Ruddy Darter. A relaxing session with plenty to see, study and photograph. Just how I like it!
 



 Willow Emerald Damselfly (chalcolestes viridis) - female


 Willow Emerald Damselfly (chalcolestes viridis) - male
 
  Willow Emerald Damselfly (chalcolestes viridis) - female
 


 Willow Emerald Damselfly (chalcolestes viridis) - male
 


8 comments:

  1. Wonderful to hear that all is well with the Willow Emeralds, Marc. Super shots too, but my favourite has to be the one of the male that is the third from the bottom - although I'm not sure why! Best wishes - - - Richard

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    1. Many thanks Richard. Hopefully I can make A few more visits to photograph them in tandem, mating and ovipositing in the coming weeks.

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  2. Beautiful images of the Willow Emerald Damselfly, love it Marc.

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    1. Many thanks Bob. They certainly do pose well at times. It's hard to resist a photo or two.

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  3. Wonderful images …. superb damsels !!!

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    1. Many thanks. I'm very lucky to have such a good sized colony close to home.

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  4. I don't know how you do it Marc, I turn my back for a few minutes and there is another set of your magnificent pics.

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    1. Many thanks Mike. I like to get out whenever I get the chance.

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