Willow Emerald Damselfly at Sunrise

After the success a few days ago at finding c80 Willow Emerald Damselfly at Nethergong, I wanted to return to see how many others had emerged and continue my study of this damselfly. I had given myself a couple of targets for this session, one was to photograph a Willow Emerald Damselfly at sunrise and the other was to try to find a Willow Emerald Damselfly nymph that I could put in my tank to photograph. I was up early thankfully at 4.30am where after getting ready and checking the weather forecast, I was off out of the house and driving over to Nethergong. The forecast suggested clear skies early on with cloud building up so I was pleased when I arrived to see quite clear skies to the east. The great thing about this site being a campsite is that you can drive around in the car and as I had quite a bit of equipment with me today including camera, tripod, nets and tank etc, I made the most of this and parked quite near to where I needed to be. I didn't have to walk far and I was confident I would be able to find some Willow Emerald Damselflies roosting and this was the case as I soon found one resting nicely and set up the tripod and camera in preparation for sunrise. At around 5.15am the sky started to turn orange and red as the sun prepared to rise and then a few minutes later, the sun appeared and I began taking a number of images.

Willow Emerald Damselfly (male) at Sunrise

There are not many better moments I find than photographing at dawn when no one is around and all you can see and hear is nature. Spider webs shimmer with early morning dew and the sound of buzzing wings in the grasses can be heard as the damselflies prepare to dry their wings. Its just a magical time of the day and I never tire of getting up early for such a session, however I do get tired later on in the day! After taking a number of photos I decided to put the camera away and go for a walk along the waters edge to see what could be found. I spent the next couple of hours searching the grasses and reeds for damselflies and ended up seeing c30 Willow Emerald Damselfly, many having just emerged and c30 Emerald Damselfly. I also found c15 Willow Emerald Damselfly exuviae. There must easily have been over 100 emerged in the past few days and I hope many more will continue to emerge. To end the session, I decided to have a go at 'stream' dipping' to see if I could find and Willow Emerald Damselfly nymphs. The stream is mostly covered in floating weed and it was easier to drag some of this in with the net and have a look. After only the second attempt I struck lucky and found a nymph, the first I have caught. This was put in the tank with plenty of weed and will be photographed in the next day or so at home where if I am really lucky and keep checking, I may even witness and photograph the emergence. A superb session once again with a few quality images taken. Hopefully I will return in a few days time again for some more action.

Willow Emerald Damselfly (male) at Sunrise