The 'Migrant' Flight Shot Challenge

Its been a struggle the past few days what with work etc to get on the computer and get some photos done from the past few sessions. With the dragonfly season starting to slow down I have found myself taking lots of photos of Migrant Hawkers. I have set myself a few flight challenges with this species as often they can show well in flight. During last weekend at Reculver I found a few individuals and set about getting a few shots of them. I took hundreds of them in flight and have posted a few pleasing shots below, I am still to even look through lots of them so no doubt there will be more and hopefully better shots of them to come.

Male Migrant Hawker

Whilst photographing one I noticed a mating pair fly in and land and where straight away buzzed by a Willow Emerald Damselfly. The damselfly was adamant that he wanted his perch and tried to land on the Migrant Hawkers. He tried a few times only to be shaken off but eventually he landed on the wing of the Hawker providing a great photo opportunity. He sat there quite happily watching the Hawkers mating until they had enough of being watched during this intimate time and flew off to have time alone.

Mating Migrant Hawkers with Willow Emerald Damselfly

I ended up seeing 17 Willow Emerald Damselfly and good numbers of Migrant Hawker, in fact they were everywhere. I also saw a male Brown Hawker which posed high up for a photo and a few Common Blue Damselfly as well as a few Common Darter. I have also seen up to 3 Emperor Dragonfly still on the wing and photos of these along with Brown Hawker, Southern Hawker, Migrant Hawker flight shots and Willow Emerald Damselflies will be posted in the next few weeks when photos get a little hard to find and take as the species end their flight season.

 Male Migrant Hawker