Autumn Gold

With the last few days and this weekend seemingly dominated by heavy rain and last weekend, gale force winds, I have not managed to get out at all to Nethergong to check on the numbers of dragonflies and damselflies still on the wing. Working all week only means I have the weekends to get out now and with the weather deteriorating, there may not be too many other weekends to get out before the season draws to a close. I will just have to hope that the next few weekends delivers some sunny mild weather to allow me to visit to see if the Willow Emerald Damselflies, Migrant Hawkers and Common Darters are still to be seen. With autumn now well and truly here, I always try to spend some time photographing the remaining species with a feel of autumn in the background. Now the leaves are falling and turning colour, they make for some interesting shots and with this in mind, I spent a few hours a couple of weeks ago in the morning sunshine looking for resting Willow Emerald Damselflies to photograph. After a while looking in some sheltered sunny areas, I soon found a few individuals and settled down to capture a few pleasing images. At this time of year, the sides of the thorax on the Willow Emerald Damselfly take on a lovely golden colour which adds to their lovely emerald colour. It took me a while moving angles to get a few autumnal backgrounds but after a while, I  had a few shots to work with. Weather permitting, they will go on into early November if the weather allows but I just hope I get the chance to make another few visits to see and photograph them before their time is up. 

Willow Emerald Damselfly (Chalcolestes viridis) - male