Last Saturday afternoon saw me making a visit to Grove Ferry in sunny but quite windy conditions to see what numbers of Norfolk Hawkers were on the wing. I managed to see c17 Norfolk Hawker which was a little disappointing but this may been due to the wind speed keeping them out of the ditches. It was somewhat worrying though to see a number of ditches becoming well overgrown now which I suspect the Hawkers will not be using so regularly as before. Hopefully over the winter months Natural England can clear a few of these choked ditches to once again allow the Norfolk Hawkers to use and egg lay. Due to the wind, photographic opportunities were quite tricky to come by but with some patience, I managed a few reasonable photos. Ideally I can return soon although I have dragonfly tours starting this weekend which might hamper any visits soon. I did not even attempt any flight shots as the Hawkers were hovering all over the place making this a tough challenge. Other dragonflies noted included 3 Hairy Dragonfly, 5 Black tailed Skimmer, 3 Four spotted Chaser, 1 Broad bodied Chaser, 2 Banded Demoiselle and quite a few Variable, Azure, Blue tailed and Red eyed Damselfly. All being well my next post will feature some more Dainty surprises at a relatively new site where numbers were very encouraging.
Your fabulous photos brought home to me that, once again, I missed my mid-June visit to Strumpshaw Fen to photograph Norfolk Hawkers, Marc. Last year the weather was awful for the time I booked, and the previous year was lockdown! I'll get there one day!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes, and good luck with the tours - - - Richard
Many thanks Richard. I wish you a speedy recovery and a quick return to the dragonflies. Take care.
DeleteHello Marc, I've said before I wish I was a little younger and maybe I could get wonderful photo's like yours. Take care, Mike.
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