Demoiselles at Dawn

Having just returned from four days camping with the family at Nethergong, I had quite a few opportunities to wander around the site to see what birds, dragonflies and damselflies could be found. The weather was pretty good too with mostly sunny, very warm conditions and light winds although we did have a heavy thunderstorm early Sunday morning which was pretty spectacular. Thankfully, the tent remained waterproof. As I was on site, I decided to give myself a few challenges and these included photographing the iconic Banded Demoiselle at sunrise and sunset. I made a visit out Friday night after we had set up and found quite a few Banded Demoiselles on the stream. As the weather cooled off, the plan was to see if I could see some go to roost and if the chance arose, make the most of the opportunity and photograph them at sunset. I spent a while watching and managed to see some come to rest on the bank and returned a little later as the sun was setting and took a few photos. I will post these in due coarse. My top target was to photograph a male Banded Demoiselle at sunrise, my favorite part of the day and having already seen a few from the night before perching in a few good positions, I was eager to get up early and get set up. I was out of the tent at 4am where the weather was warm and still and after a few minutes walk, I arrived at the area which gave me a good view of the horizon. With not a cloud in the sky, I soon found 1 Banded Demoiselle perching up nicely and with the added bonus of some dew, all looked good for obtaining some pleasing shots. With the camera all set up on the tripod and the sky starting to redden up, it was around 4.50am that the sun started to rise and I then spent the next 15 minutes taking a good number of photos from different angles capturing this spectacular scene before the sun was too high.

Banded Demoiselle (male) at Sunrise

With the added sound of Cuckoo's calling around me and a Barn Owl hunting the nearby fields, this was indeed just a pleasure to be out. Throughout my stay, I also managed to confirm that Red eyed Damselfly and Variable Damselfly are on site and I found good numbers of Large Red Damselfly and Azure Damselfly along with quite a few Hairy Dragonfly but the best surprise was in a the form of a Norfolk Hawker which I watched for c10 minutes flying up and down the stream. A really nice break with the family and made even more pleasurable by the good number of species seen and photographed. 

Banded Demoiselle (male) at Sunrise